REMOVAL OF CU^2+ USING UTRICULARIA AUREA AS A BIOSORBENT IN SYNTHETIC INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER

Biosorption of copper ions (Cu^2+) using Utricularia Aurea has been investigated as a function of pH, contact time and particle size of the biosorbent. A series of batch equilibrium adsorption study was conducted to determine the effect of varied pH from pH 2, 4, 7, and 9, contact time at 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes, biosorbent particle size ranging from 150 μm, 300 μm, 450 μm and 600 μm at an agitation speed of 125 rpm using Utricularia aurea (U. Aurea). Based on the optimization study, it was found that the optimum removal of Cu^2+ ( 90%) occurred at pH4, contact time of 40 minutes and particle size of 450μm. Atomic Absorption Spectrometer was used to analyse the concentration of Cu^2+ in the sample. A kinetic study on Cu^2+ adsorption onto U.Aurea was analysed using pseudo-first order and pseudo second order kinetic models. Based on the kinetic study analysis, the adsorption of Cu^2+ followed pseudo- second order kinetic which r^2 was greater than 0.99 rather than pseudo- first order kinetic models. Thus, Utricularia Aurea can be an alternative as a new adsorbent media in treating heavy metals contaminated for industrial wastewater.