A study of lead removal using sargassum tenerrimum (brown algae): Biosorption in column study

Abstract

The sorption capacity of sargassum tenerrimum powder is studied for various flow rates i.e., 10, 20 and 30 mL/min. The initial pH of aqueous solution is maintained at 5. For the flow rates of 10, 20 and 30 mL/min, the breakthrough times are 32, 26 and 18 min respectively while the exhaust times are 90, 85 and 75 min respectively. The time taken to achieve breakthrough has decreased with increase of flow rate. A glass column having 2.54 cm internal diameter (ID) and length of 40 cm were used. The experiments are conducted for two different bed heights (5 and 10 cm) using 2 and 4 g of biosorbent. A flow rate of 30 mL/min of aqueous solution (Co = 20 mg/L) is maintained. With an increase in bed height, the throughput volume is increased to achieve the saturation and this increase in input volume, would result in higher contact time, thereby increasing the uptake capacity. Lead biosorption uptakes are increased from 13.852 to 20.839 mg/g as the bed height is increased from 5 to 10 cm. the breakthrough curve models BDST, Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models were studied for discussing the fixed bed column onto biosprion of lead.