Assessing the Performance of Heavy Cu2+ Metal Sorption by Immobilized Biosorbent in Fixed-bed Column Reactor Based on Breakthrough Curves

Abstract

Astri Rinanti, Melati Ferianita Fachrul, Rositayanti Hadisoebroto, David Jonathan, Suparman

This research was conducted to determine the best performance of Cu2+ metals biosorption contained in electroplating effluent based on the values of breakthrough curve parameters. This involved the formation of biosorbents from a biomass consortium immobilized by an alginate polymer at a ratio of 0.5 gram of biomass/gram of alginate while the kinetics of the Cu2+ metal absorption was studied using the Thomas model. The biosorption performance was assessed by varying the bed heights at 2.5, 5, and 7.5 cm, at pH 4, and room temperature of 26Ëš±1 in a continuous laboratory scaled fixed-bed column reactor system which was built of glass, with a volume of 1.5 L, and equipped with a peristaltic pump at a flow rate of 15 mL/min. An increase in the biosorption performance was observed due to the increment in the bed height and the best value was obtained at 7.5 cm, based on the shape of the sloping curve, maximum capacity (q_e) of 0.118 mg of Cu2+/g of biosorbent, and breakthrough time of 20.6 minutes. Therefore, the kinetic studies showed the Thomas model has the ability to describe a good biosorption process with a maximum value of r2 reaching 0.985.