Comparative study of the kinetics and equilibrium of phenol biosorption on immobilized white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium from aqueous solution

In this study the kinetics and equilibrium of phenol biosorption were studied from aqueous solution using batch technique at an initial pH of 5.5. The biosorption was studied on Ca–alginate beads, on non-living mycelial pellets of Phanerochaete chrysosporium immobilized on Ca–alginate, and on free fungal biomass. Ph. chrysosporium was grown in a liquid medium containing mineral and vitamin materials with complex composition. The biosorption process followed pseudo second-order kinetics on all bioadsorbents. The bioadsorption-equilibrium on blank Ca–alginate, free and immobilized fungal biomass can be described by Langmuir, anti-Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models using nonlinear least-squares estimation.