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Biosorption of Cd(II) from synthetic wastewater using dry biofilms from biotrickling filters

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Abstract

Biofilms wasted from biotrickling filters was dried and used as biosorbent for Cd(II) removal from aqueous solutions. The adsorption condition and effect, adsorption isotherms and kinetics of Cd(II) removal were investigated, and the effects of competitive metal ions on Cd(II) removal were also examined. Results showed that the dry waste biofilms reached the maximum adsorption capacity of 42 mg/g of Cd(II) at 25 °C for 120 min when the initial concentration of Cd(II) and their pH were 50 mg/L and 6.0, respectively. Under these conditions, the removal efficiency of Cd(II) reached to 89.3% when the biosorbent dosage was 2.0 g/L. The Langmuir isotherm model correlated with the isotherm data better than the Freundlich isotherm model, and the pseudo-second-order model fitted the kinetic data better than the pseudo-first-order model. These results indicated that the adsorption was monolayer accompanied with chemical adsorption. In the presence of other metal ions, divalent metal ions of Ca and Zn inhibited the performance of Cd(II) biosorption significantly, while Na(I), K(I) and Fe(III) which had a higher or lower valence than Ca(II) affected slightly when containing 50 mg/L Cd(II), 0.5 g/L adsorbent dosage and pH 6.0. The analyses of scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy illuminated that the biosorbent had porous structures and the amide group was the majorly responsible for Cd(II) removal. Dry biofilms were novel sorbents for effective removal Cd(II), and it could be reused and recycled if necessary.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support from the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (Project Contract No.: 2015DFG92750), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 51478172) and the Department of Science and Technology of Hunan Province (Project Contract No.: 2014GK1012) is greatly appreciated.

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Author notes

  1. H.J. He, Z.H. Xiang and X.J. Chen contribute equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, Hunan, China

    H. J. He, Z. H. Xiang, X. J. Chen, H. Chen, H. Huang, M. Wen & C. P. Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, Hunan, China

    H. J. He, Z. H. Xiang, X. J. Chen, H. Chen, H. Huang, M. Wen & C. P. Yang

  3. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310018, Zhejiang, China

    C. P. Yang

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  1. H. J. He
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Correspondence to C. P. Yang.

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Editorial responsibility: M. Abbaspour.

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He, H.J., Xiang, Z.H., Chen, X.J. et al. Biosorption of Cd(II) from synthetic wastewater using dry biofilms from biotrickling filters. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 15, 1491–1500 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1507-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1507-8

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