Effect of aluminum in two-metal biosorption by an algal biosorbent

doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2004.01.002

Minerals Engineering

Volume 17, Issue 4, April 2004, Pages 487-493

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2004.01.002 Get rights and content

Abstract

Heavy metal and Al sorption capacities of Ca-loaded Laminaria japonica biomass were studied using equilibrium methodology. An evaluation of sorption performance and modeling in a two-metal system was carried out using a modified multi-component Langmuir isotherm. The maximum uptakes of Cr, Pb, Cu, Cd, Zn and Al calculated from the Langmuir isotherm were 1.81, 1.68, 1.59, 1.21, 0.87, and 2.79 mmol/g at pH 4.5, respectively. The interference of Al in heavy metal biosorptive uptakes was assessed by ‘cutting’ the three-dimensional uptake isotherm surfaces at constant second-metal final concentrations. The reduction of Pb, Cu, Cd, Zn and Cr uptakes at its final equilibrium concentrations of 1 mM at pH 4.5 was 77.7%, 80.4%, 86.0%, 89.1% and 50.1% on the presence of Al ion of 1 mM, respectively. The presence of Al ion greatly affected the uptake of all heavy metals tested except for Cr.

Introduction

Passive metal uptake, observed with a broad range of microbial biomass types, has been investigated to remove residual toxic or valuable heavy metals from industrial effluents. The potential of biosorption technology in the treatment of wastewater and environmental pollution control has been outlined earlier by Volesky (1990). Different dead biomass types, such as bacteria, fungi and algae have been screened for their capability of adsorbing heavy metals from solutions (Volesky and Holan, 1995; Lee et al., 1999; Leusch et al., 1995; Yu and Kaewsarn, 1999). Considerable work carried out with seaweeds, specially from genera Sargassum and Ascophyllum (Holan et al., 1993; Kuyucak and Volesky, 1988), showed high and even commercially attractive sorbent potential of such organisms for metal removal/recovery from dilute solutions. The presence of a large number of metals in industrial metal-bearing solutions such as the wastewater of aluminum refinery and alum manufacturing industry makes it necessary to investigate the effect on the final metal uptake by individual biosorbent materials.

Although aluminum is not considered as a major environmental pollutant, its ubiquitous presence in solutions makes it an obvious target for investigation as to its effect on the biosorbent uptake of many other toxic metals such as cadmium, lead and chromium.

Simple sorption isotherm curves are usually constructed as a result of studying equilibrium batch sorption behavior of different biosorbent materials. They enable quantitative evaluation of sorption performance of these materials in conjunction (conventionally only) with one metal (de Carvalho et al., 1994). However, when more than one metal is present in the sorption system, the evaluation of biosorption results, their interpretation and representation become much more complicated. With two metals in the solution, instead of a two-dimensional biosorption isotherm curve, the system evaluation results in a series of three-dimensional sorption isotherm surfaces (de Carvalho et al., 1995). This representation of cadmium biosorption by Ascophyllum nodosum biomass in a two-metal system showed the competitive and inhibitive behavior of the metals present. In order to facilitate such study, mathematical models had to be proposed and examined for their suitability (Chong and Volesky, 1995). However, the sorption isotherm surfaces have not been smoothed and showed irregularities which may or may not truly reflect the behavior of the two-metal sorption system. Moreover, the sorption performance of the ‘virgin’ biosorbent studied then was affected by the alginate leached from it (de Carvalho et al., 1994) making it difficult to extrapolate the sorption uptake values over the range of the biosorption studies conducted.

This work illustrates a quantitative approach to an evaluation of the sorption capacity of a well-stabilized Ca-loaded Laminaria japonica biosorbent, prepared from the biomass of the brown marine alga, in conjunction with solutions containing two metals of interest: Al and heavy metals such as Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn and Cr. The objective of the present work was to evaluate a two-metal biosorption system behavior involving heavy metals, aluminum and a generally high metal-sorbing biosorbent material of Laminaria seaweed. We also assessed the extent of the interference of aluminum ion on the uptake of heavy metals coexistent with it.

Section snippets

Materials

Raw L. japonica biomass was collected and sun-dried on the beach near Kijang, East Coast of Korea. Dry raw biomass was treated by soaking in 0.5 M CaCl₂ solution in flasks shaken gently on an orbital shaker. Two grams of raw biomass was added to 500 ml of 0.5 M CaCl₂ (100 rpm shaking overnight at room temperature). Biomass was filtered off and washed with the same volume of distilled water and then dried overnight at 60 °C. The weight loss of biomass was approximately 37%. Biomass components

Single-metal sorption

The sorption performance of L. japonica biomass was evaluated through determining the sorption isotherms for the material with Al and heavy metals, respectively, before examining it in solutions containing both metals together. As the mechanism of metal uptake by the Ca-loaded biomass was confirmed to be based on ion exchange (Lee and Suh, 2000; Lee and Volesky, 1997), the single-metal sorption behavior (Fig. 1) of the material was particularly well approximated by a simple Langmuir-type

Conclusions

The interference of Al in heavy metals biosorption was assessed by deriving three dimensional sorption surface with a modified multi-component Langmuir isotherm. The Langmuir parameters, K₁ for heavy metals and K₂ for Al, the ratio of the adsorption rate constant to the desorption rate constant, are an indication of the ‘relative affinity’ of the biosorbent towards a metal. The reduction of Pb, Cu, Cd, Zn and Cr uptakes at its final equilibrium concentrations of 1 mM at pH 4.5 was 77.7%, 80.4%,

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by 2003 Research Fund of University of Ulsan.

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Effect of aluminum in two-metal biosorption by an algal biosorbent

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Materials

Single-metal sorption

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Water Research

Studies of hydrolyzed aluminum chloride solutions. I. Nature of aluminum species and composition of aqueous solutions

J. Phys. Chem.

Description of two-metal biosorption equilibria by Langmuir-type model

Biotechnol. Bioeng.

Effects of leached alginate on metal biosorption

Biotechnol. Lett.

Evaluation of the Cd, Cu and Zn biosorption in two-metal systems using biosorbent

Biotechnol. Prog.

Biosorption of cadmium by biomass of marine algae

Biotechnol. Bioeng.

Formation of X-ray amorphous and crystalline aluminum hydroxides

Mineral. Mag.