| dc.description.abstract | Biosorption is evolving as a potential alternative to the
existing conventional technologies for the removal and/
or recovery of pollutants from aqueous solutions. The
present work investigates the possible application of
waste biomass Myriophyllum spicatum (Ms) in removing
contaminants, evaluating equilibrium through isotherms
of selected heavy metals: lead, copper, and
cadmium. As a heavy metal biosorbent, Ms was immobilized
in alginate beads (Ms: Alginate 2:1). Applied
biosorbent, MsA, was characterized by scanning electron
microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
(SEM–EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(FT-IR). Experimental results were fitted (nonlinear)
by six isotherm models: Langmuir, Freundlich,
Sips, Redlich and Peterson, Toth, and Temkin. For
lead(II) ion removal, fitting follows the following
sequence, F ≈ R-P > S > To > L > Te, while for copper(II)
and cadmium(II) ions are as follows: R-P > To ≈ Te ≈
L > S > F and R-P > L > To > S > F > Te, respectively. TOC
analyses revealed that M. spicatum releases 35.04 mg/L
of total organic content while immobilized sample, MsA,
only 6.81 mg/L. Finally, this biosorbent was tested on a sample of real wastewater from a coal-fired thermal
power plant complex TPP Kostolac (operated by PE
“Electric Power Industry of Serbia”). The results indicate
that using immobilized aquatic weed M. spicatum as
a biosorbent has a high potential for heavy metal wastewater
treatment applications. | sr |
