Biosorption of Basic Blue 7 by fungal cells immobilized on the green-type biomatrix of Phragmites australis spongy tissue

ABSTRACT

Biosorption is an effective alternative method for the control of water pollution caused by different pollutants such as synthetic dyes and metals. A new and efficient biomass system was developed from the passively immobilized fungal cells. The spongy tissue of Phragmites australis was considered as the carrier for the immobilization of Neurospora sitophila cells employed for the biosorption of Basic Blue 7. This plant tissue was used for the first time as a carrier for fungal cells. The biosorption was examined through batch- and continuous-mode operations. The biosorption process conformed well to the Langmuir model. Maximum monolayer biosorption capacity of the biosorbent was recorded as 154.756 mg g⁻¹. Kinetic findings showed a very good compliance with the pseudo-second-order model. The negative values of ΔG° indicated a spontaneous nature of the biosorption process and a positive value of ΔH° (14.69 kJ mol⁻¹) concluded favorable decolorization at high temperature. The scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that a porous, rippled, and rough surface of biomass system was covered with BB7 molecular cloud. IR results revealed that functional groups like –OH, –NH, and C˭O participated to the decolorization. Breakthrough and exhausted points were found as 360 and 570 minutes, respectively. The biomass system was successfully applied to the treatment of real wastewater.

KEYWORDS:

• decolorization
• equilibrium
• immobilization
• kinetics
• isotherm

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Commission of Scientific Research Projects of Eskişehir Osmangazi University (ESOGU) with the Project Numbers 201419D17 and 201419A108.

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by ESOGU.