Experimental Investigation on Biosorption of Copper from Dilute Solutions by using Protonated Marine Algae - Kinetic and Isotherm Studies

Abstract

Water pollution is a  key outcome of industrial growth that is needed for urbanization. Heavy metals forms a class of pollutants and they are relatively present in lesser quantities than the other pollutants. The trace amounts are themselves found to be very hazardous. Hence the researches on heavy metal removal has attracted wide interest among the people working in  environmental discipline. The present report is on the modelling of biosorption of copper metal from synthetic effluent using the dead marine algae Sargassum tennerrimmum. Sorption kinetic studies using the three kinetic models, Lagargren First order kinetics, Pseudo Second order kinetics and Fractional order showed that the third model gave the best fit. The isotherm  parameters of Langmuir model, Freundlich model and Redlich Peterson models were computed and reported. The algae was able to adsorb metal ions with an efficiency of 92% recovery.