Continuous packed bed biosorption of reactive red on pretreated Penicilium sp

The biosorption of reactive red on acid-treated Penicilium sp. was investigated in a packed-bed column. The column experiments were conducted to study the effect of operating parameters such as initial dye concentration, adsorbent dose and flow rate on the column removal capacity. The Thomas model was used to analyze the experimental data. Column experiments showed that the fungal mycelia mixed with quartz sand possessed higher biosorption capacity than the biomass immobilized by sodium alginate. Column studies indicated that biosorbent dosage, dye concentration and flow rate affected the biosorption characteristics of Penicilium sp., with highest biosorbent dosage, highest dye concentration and lowest flow rate resulted in better dye uptake. At initial reactive red concentration of 200mg/L, flow rate of 0.06 L/h, amount of adsorbent of 5g (wet weight) and initial pH of 3, the biosorption capacity and rate of dye removal were 150.95mg/L and 64.84%, respectively. The column was successfully eluted using 0.01M NaOH, with an elution efficiency of 94.58%. The Thomas model could well describe the breakthrough data from column experiments. The results indicate that the Penicilium sp. could be used as a promising biosorbent for color removing.