Biosorption of heavy metals by seaweed biomass

PLAZA CAZÓN JOSEFINA; DONATI, EDGARDO

Seaweed

Springer, Nature

Año: 2020;

Heavy metal biosorption emerged as an alternative to conventional industrial effluent remediation treatments, essentially because of its low cost and high efficiency. In this technology, several materials of biological origin can be used to sequester metals from liquid media; among these materials, algae biomasses stand out. Macrocystis pyrifera is a brown seaweed, whose wastes are usually deposited on the Argentine coast. The biomass of this seaweed, pre-treated with CaCl2, was used for kinetic and equilibrium studies on the removal of Zn(II), Cd(II), Ni(II), Cr(III) and Hg(II). Results were adjusted to Langmuir, Freudlich and D-R models. It was established that M. pyrifera biomass has a high adsorption capacity and a high affinity for those metals and especially for Hg(II) compared to other biosorbents although with slower kinetics in the latter case.