Equilibrium and Kinetic Studies of the Biosorption of Dissolved Metals on Bacillus drentensis Immobilized in Biocarrier Beads

摘要

Biocarrier beads with dead biomass, Bacillus drentensis, immobilized in polymer polysulfone were synthesized to remove heavy metals from wastewater. To identify the sorption mechanisms and theoretical nature of underlying processes, a series of batch experiments were carried out to quantify the biosorption of Pb(II) and Cu(II) by the biocarrier beads. The parameters obtained from the ther-modynamic analysis revealed that the biosorption of Pb(II) and Cu(II) by biomass immobilized in biocarrier beads was a spontaneous, irreversible, and physically-occurring adsorption phenomenon. Comparing batch experimental data to various adsorption isotherms confirmed that Koble-Corrigan and Langmuir isotherms well represented the biosorption equilibrium and the system likely occurred through monolayer sorption onto a homogeneous surface. The maximum adsorption capacities of the biocarrier beads for Pb(II) and Cu(II) were calculated as 0.3332 and 0.5598 mg/g, respectively. For the entire biosorption process, pseudo-second-order and Ritchie second-order kinetic models were observed to provide better descriptions for the biosorption kinetic data. Application of the intra-particle diffusion model showed that the intraparticle diffusion was not the rate-limiting step for the biosorption phenomena. Overall, the dead biomass immobilized in polysulfone biocarrier beads effectively removed metal ions and could be applied as a biosorbent in wastewater treatment.