Abstract
The removal of Pb(II) from water by biosorption processes onto malt bagasse was investigated and the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were obtained; additionally a diffusion modeling was proposed. The characterization of malt bagasse was performed by FTIR and SEM/EDS. The experiments were conducted in batch system and an experimental design based response surface methodology was applied for agitation speed and pH optimization. The kinetics of biosorption followed pseudo-second-order model and the temperature of the process affected the biosorption capacity. Isotherm models of Langmuir, Freundlich, and Elovich were applied and the Langmuir model showed better fit and the estimated biosorption capacity was 29.1 mg g−1. The negative values obtained for ΔG° and positive values of ΔH° confirm, respectively, the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the process. The diffusion modeling was performed based on experiments in the absence of agitation to investigate the influence of the biosorbent on the sorption process of Pb(II) ions.
Highlights
The pollution of water by toxic elements such as cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb) generally from industrial wastes is potentially harmful to the health of human beings and the ecosystem [1,2,3,4]
At 3314 cm−1a strong absorption peak can be observed for malt bagasse before and after Pb(II) biosorption process, result of the presence of –OH and –NH groups
Malt bagasse was found to be a promising biosorbent for the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solution, due to the removal efficacy, low cost, and the ability to be used without previous treatment
Summary
The pollution of water by toxic elements such as cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb) generally from industrial wastes is potentially harmful to the health of human beings and the ecosystem [1,2,3,4]. Considering the contamination of aquatic systems, Pb is one of the most toxic and problematic elements. Industrial effluent treatment is normally performed by conventional processes such as precipitation and sludge separation, besides some processes including chemical oxidation and/or reduction, electrochemical treatment, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis that can be performed. Some of these methods are costly and have poor efficiency of treatments, concerning metal removing [6]. Alternative methods, such as biosorption process, for metals removal of effluents have been studied [7,8,9,10,11]
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