Journal of Bioprocessing & Biotechniques

Enhancing Biosorption Characteristics of Marine Green Algae (Ulva lactuca)for Heavy Metals Removal by Alkaline Treatment

Abstract

Laura Bulgariu1 and Dumitru Bulgariu

The biosorption characteristics of alkaline treated marine green algae (Ulva lactuca) have been studied for the removal of Pb(II), Zn(II) and Co(II) from aqueous solution, at room temperature. Batch experiments were performed to examine the effect of NaOH concentration used for treatment, initial heavy metals concentration and contact time, in comparison with untreated algae. The biosorption capacity of alkaline treated marine green algae increases with increasing of NaOH concentration, up to 0.6 mol L^-1, when an improvement of biosorption capacity with 11.75% for Pb(II), 60.64% for Zn(II) and 62.53% for Co(II) respectively, was obtained. The Langmuir model provides best correlation of equilibrium experimental data, and the pseudo-second order describes well the biosorption kinetics of considered heavy metals. The heavy metal ions could be easily desorbed from loaded biosorbent, and this may be reuse at least in three biosorption/desorption cycles.