Evaluation of Native and Chemically Modified <i>Sargassum glaucescens</i> for Continuous Biosorption of Co(II).

Mina Ebrahimi; Reza Panahi; Reza Dabbagh

Abstract  In the present study, biosorption of stable cobalt was studied in an up-flow fixed-bed column using the brown alga Sargassum glaucescens treated with formaldehyde (FA) or MgCl2. Notable increase in cobalt removal was observed for FA-treated biosorbent with 2.7 and 1.4 times higher dynamic capacity (DC) and uptake capacity (UC) than native alga, respectively. Consequently, FA-treated S. glaucescens was selected for further investigations. In particle size experiments, the DCs of 0.5–1 and 1–2 mm particles were both equal to 27.6 mg/g, and corresponding UCs were 34 and 38 mg/g, respectively. The maximum DC was obtained at residence time of 2.5 min. Studying the effect of additional ions indicated partial effect of Na and K ions on DC and UC, Mg2 reduced highly the DC and slightly the UC while heavy metal ions (Ni2 , Cd2 , Cu2 , Zn2 , Pb2 and Cr3 ) caused decrease in both DC and UC about 1.5–4.7 and 1.8–3.2 times, respectively. Moreover, the column regeneration studies were carried out for four sorption–desorption cycles. The DC and the UC highly decreased in the second cycle, partially decreased or remained constant in the third and in the fourth one.

SARGASSUM; ABSORPTION; FORMALDEHYDE; BROWN algae; COBALT; PARTICLE size distribution

Applied Biochemistry & Biotechnology, 2009, Vol 158, Issue 3, p736

0273-2289

Academic Journal

10.1007/s12010-008-8389-7