Mercury Bio Adsorption (Hg) in Aqueous Solution through Mexican Coast’s Pelagic Sargassum

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the effectiveness of Sargassum in eliminating mercury in wastewater. The most toxic form of mercury is the methyl mercury, as 90% is absorbed in the body, and mercury chloride only by 2%. Current cleaning methods can be very expensive. Some adverse effects of methyl mercury include, mainly, damage to the brain and kidneys, but it can also cause nervous system disorders. The percentage of Mercury adsorbed by sargassum was analyzed, varying contact times, sargassum concentrations and particle size in microns. Several processes were used, as 4 kilos of sargassum were washed with detergent and water, dehydration techniques were applied to dry the product inside a drying oven, and pulverization was also implemented to obtain 1800 g in different particle sizes (from 100 microns to 300 microns) of product. Subsequently, solutions were prepared with concentrations of Mercury ranging from 10 to 100 ppb. To analyze the effectiveness of its adsorption, 2, 4 and 6 grams of sargassum were deposited in said solutions at contact times of 20, 40 and 60 minutes to finally calculate the decontamination rates of water by different formulas. The fatty acid profile was also analyzed for the adsorbent for a possibility of another property of sargassum.