Title: Biosorption of inorganic mercury onto marine alga Sargassum tenerrimum: batch and column studies

Authors: N. Rajamohan, B. Sivaprakash

Addresses: Department of Engineering, Higher College of Technology, Muscat, Oman. ' Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar 608002, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: The potential of Sargassum tenerrimmum algal biomass to remove Hg (II) from aqueous solution is investigated through batch experiments with regard to the influence of solution pH, adsorbent dosage and agitation rate. The algal biomass showed increased sorption capacity with increase in solution pH in the range of 4-7 with the maximum uptake of 3 mmolg⁻¹ at pH 7. For maximum uptake, the optimal agitation rate was found to be 150 rpm. The equilibrium studies were carried out to test the validity of Langmuir (Q_max = 1.900 mmolg⁻¹ and b = 0.526 m⁻¹mol⁻¹) and Freundlich (n = 1.430 and K = 183.821 mol⁻¹) isotherms. The effects of bed height and flow rate on continuous mercury removal were studied using BDST and Thomas models respectively.

Keywords: biosorption; marine algae; mercury removal; isotherm; fixed column studies; Sargassum tenerrimum; biomass; adsorption; bed height; flow rate; water pollution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2010.031530

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.12 No.2/3/4, pp.229 - 239

Published online: 10 Feb 2010 *

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