<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA" lang="EN-GB">Adsorption of Cu and Zn on calcium alginate immobilized <i>Penicillium sp</i>.</span>

Abstract

Calcium alginate has been used for immobilization of <i>Penicillium sp. </i>(PS). The bio granules thus prepared by the immobilization technique, i.e. immobilized PS (IPS), are then used for Cu and Zn sorption from waste water. Various sorption parameters are studied to establish the optimum sorption conditions. The study shows that 5.0 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">p</i>H and 200 min contact time are the optimum values for both Cu and Zn sorption. The activation energy for Cu sorption by IPS is found to be 19.4 kJ/mole and Zn sorption on IPS is found to be temperature independent. The sorption process obeys Freundlich sorption isotherm in both the cases. The sorption of Cu and Zn by IPS follows pseudo-first order reaction kinetics and is found to be diffusion controlled in nature. The dependence of the rate constant on different sorption parameters is observed and these dependence factors are included in the final rate expressions.