Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research (ISSN : 0975-7384)

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Original Articles: 2014 Vol: 6 Issue: 1

Removal of lead and cadmium in batch and packed bed column system by using PVA-alginate immobilized fungal sorbent

Abstract

“Mucor heimalis”, a fungal biomass immobilized in PVA- alginate, was utilized as potential biosorbent for removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) from aqueous solution in column system. The experiments were conducted to study the effect of important design parameters such as bed height, flow rate, and initial metal ion concentration. At a bed height of 13 cm, flow rate 1.0 mL/min, and initial metal ion concentration 15 mg/L, the maximum Pb(II) and Cd(II) uptake capacity of Mucor heimalis was found to be 2.53 and 1.83mg/g respectively. The bed depth service time (BDST) model was in good agreement with experimental data with high correlation coefficient (> 0.999 for Pb(II) and > 0.998 for Cd(II)). The bed sorption capacity (No) at 1 and 3 mL/min were found to be 410.64 and 415.54 mg/L for Pb(II) and 353.34 and 386.91mg/L for Cd(II) and rate constant (Ka) were 0.0960 and 1.296 L/mg/h for Pb(II) and 0.0874 and 0.299 L/mgh for Cd(II), respectively. The column regeneration studies were carried out using 10% HCl as eluant for three sorption-desorption cycles. The high Pb(II) and Cd(II) removal ability and regeneration efficiency of this biosorbent suggest its applicability in industrial processes and data generated would help in further up scaling of the sorption process.