Bioremediation of Lead Contaminated Agricultural Soil using Klebsiella pneumoniae

Abstract

This study focused on the use of Klebsiella pneumoniae for bioremediation of lead (Pb) contaminated agricultural soil used for sustainable farming. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (GBC SensAAS, Model no. A6358) was used to measure the concentration of Pb in the soil. Results showed that the organism first reduced the initial concentration of lead from 181.41 mg/kg to below the maximum allowable limit of 100 mg/kg in 14 days. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) at P< 0.05 shows the significance for only single factors in the order of temperature and stirring frequency with P value of 0.0015, volume of nutrient and mass of organism with P value of 0.0016 and pH with P value of 0.0018. The factors were ranked in the order of stirring frequency, temperature, volume of nutrient, mass of organism and pH with their respective percentage contributions of 18.20%, 17.97%,17.57%, 17.52% and 16.88%. Keywords: Lead, soil remediation, Klebsiella pneumoniae.