Biosorption of copper ions from aqueous solutions by Spirulina platensis biomass

By A. A. Al-Homaidan, Hadeel Jawad Al-Houri, A. Al-Hazzani, G. El-Gaaly, N. Moubayed. 2014

170 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cu 2+ ; Spirulina platensis; Water pollution Abstract In this study, the economically important micro-alga (cyanobacterium) Spirulina platen- sis was used as biosorbent for the removal of copper from aqueous solutions. The cyanobacterium was exposed to various concentrations of copper and adsorption of copper by the biomass was eval- uated under different conditions that included pH, contact time, temperature, concentration of adsorbate and the concentration of dry biomass. Increased adsorption of copper by the non-living biomass was recorded with gradually increasing pH, and a maximal uptake by the biomass was observed at pH 7. The adsorption of copper was found to increase gradually along with decrease in biomass concentration. Biosorption was found to be at a maximum (90.6%), in a solution con- taining 100 mg copper/L, at pH 7, with 0.050 g dry biomass and at 37 � C with 90 min of contact time. Analysis of the spectrum obtained with atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS), indi- cated that the adsorbent has a great potential to remove copper from aqueous media contributing to an eco-friendly technology for efficient bioremediation in the natural environment. a 2013 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.

Subfields: Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Water Science and Technology

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