Mercury removal from liquid effluents of the chlor-alkali industry by using the biomass Sargassum sp

Abstract

In this work, the used biomass, for removing the mercuric species from the liquid effluents of the chlor-alkali plants was the macro-algae Sargassum sp. According to the results obtained, until this moment in time, it was possible to remove more than 99% of the ionic mercury with the advantage of not releasing the aqueous phase, that returns to the operation of brine production, the electrolyte of the electrolytic cells. In addition, it was verified that the biomass, once loaded with Mercury, can be reused in the biosorption step, after suffering an elution process.