BIOSORPTION OF COPPER FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION BY CHAETOMORPHA ANTENNINA ALGAE BIOMASS

The adsorption study on removal of copper metal from aqueous solution using untreated marine green algae namely Chaetomorpha Antennina sp. was carried out under various experimental conditions. The effects of contact time, pH of the solution, average biosorbent particle size, biosorbent dosage and initial concentration of metal ion have been investigated by following the batch adsorption technique. 30 minutes of biosorption time was found to be sufficient to reach equilibrium rate of sorption for copper ion. The rate of copper removal was directly correlated to biomass amount and contact time. Biosorption of metal ion was pH dependent and the results indicated the optimum pH for the removal of copper as 6.0. The highest biosorption capacity was found to be 25.78 mg of metal ion per gram of biosorbent at initial concentration of 20 mg/L copper ion and increased for higher initial concentrations. The biosorption capacity increased with increase in the amount of biosorbent used for removal. Adsorption data was modled with Freundlich, Langmuir, Redlich- Peterson and Dubinin–Radushkevich adsorption isotherms. Isotherm studies showed that the data best fitted with the Langmuir isotherm model. The kinetic data corresponded well with the pseudo-first order equation, suggesting that the biosorption process is presumably chemisorption.