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A spiral bioreactor for removal and recovery of metals from aqueous wastes

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Abstract

Microorganisms from activated sludge were immobilized on a spiral reactor fabricated from a PVC-Silica based biosupport, and used to biosorb lead from synthetic waste streams. Biosorption parameters determined for lead from Freundlich isotherms indicate that 89% of the binding capacity of that observed in suspended cell system is retained in the spiral bioreactor. More than 87% of biosorbed lead was recovered each time after breakthrough by dilute acid washing between the pH of 2 to 2.5. No significant changes in the biosorption pattern was observed over several adsorption and recovery cycles that were conducted. The spiral bioreactor is better than suspended cell systems because it provides comparable surface area as that in the suspended cell system in an immobilized (small volume) form. It is also better than the entrapped microbial cell reactors because it eliminates mass transfer resistance across the external matrix, which may reduce the inherent binding capacity.

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Author notes

  1. F. Lakhwala

    Present address: USEPA Gulf Breeze Environmental Research Laboratory, SBP Technologies, Inc., 1 Sabine Island Drive, 32561, Gulf Breeze, FL, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NJIT Biotechnology Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, 07102, Newark, NJ, USA

    E. Rus & S. Sofer

  2. SRE, Incorporated, P. O. Box 251, 07058, Pine Brook, NJ, USA

    F. Lakhwala

Authors
  1. E. Rus
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  2. S. Sofer
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  3. F. Lakhwala
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Additional information

This work was conducted at the New Jersey Institute of Technology Biotechnology Laboratory. The work was funded by the State of New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology under the Innovative Partnership Program. SRE, Inc. was the industrial co-investigator for the project. The authors would like to thank Dr. Daniel Watts of the Hazardous Substance Management Research Center at NJIT for his kind support.

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Rus, E., Sofer, S. & Lakhwala, F. A spiral bioreactor for removal and recovery of metals from aqueous wastes. Bioprocess Engineering 13, 13–17 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00368759

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00368759

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