Treatment of Cyanide Bearing Water/Wastewater by Plain and Biological Activated Carbon

Abstract

Comparative study of biodegradation and adsorption alone with simultaneous adsorption and biodegradation (SAB) process was carried out along with a brief review of the processes. Adsorption and SAB studies were carried out in plain and Pseudomonas putida immobilized granular activated carbon (GAC), whereas biodegradation was conducted with suspended cultures of P. putida. P. putida used iron cyanide as the sole source of nitrogen at an initial pH of 7.0 and temperature of 30 °C. At an initial iron(II) cyanide concentration of 100 mg/L, removal efficiencies of cyanide by adsorption, biodegradation, and SAB were found to be 81.5%, 78.2%, and 96.7%, respectively. The initial ferrocyanide concentrations of 50−350 mg CN−/L were taken for the study. The microbes adopted to grow at maximum cyanide concentration were harvested, and their ability to degrade cyanide were measured in both biodegradation and SAB. The removal efficiency of biologically activated granular activated carbon (BAC) was found better as compared to that of plain GAC. It was also found that the SAB process is more effective than adsorption and biodegradation alone.