Authors

1 Islamic Azad University –North Tehran Branch, Department of Environment

2 Faculty of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics, Shahrood University of Technology; Shahrood, Iran

Abstract

The biosorption of heavy metals can be an effective process for the removal of such metal ions from aqueous solutions. In this study, the adsorption properties of nonliving biomass of phanerochaete chrysosporium for Pb (II) and Zn (II) were investigated by the use of batch adsorption techniques. The effects of initial metal ion concentration, initial pH, biosorbent concentration, stirring speed, temperature and contact time on the biosorption efficiency were studied. The experimental results indicated that the uptake capacity and adsorption yield of one the metal ion were reduced by the presence of the other one. The optimum pH was obtained as 6.0. The experimental adsorption data were fitted to both Langmuir and Frundlich adsorption models for Pb (II) and to the Langmuir model for Zn (II) ion. The highest metals uptake values of 57 and 87 mg/g were calculated for Zn (II) and Pb (II) respectively. Desorption of heavy metal ions was performed by 50 mM HNO3 solution. The results indicated that the biomass of phanerochaete chrysosporium is a suitable biosorbent for the removal of heavy metal ions from the aqueous solutions.

Keywords