Biosorption of Cu (II) by Dead Fungal biomass of Penicillium Camemberti: Batch and Fixed Bed studied

The presence of heavy metals in aqueous sources is one of the most important problems that effects on health and environment. Adsorption by microorganisms using methods has many advantages. For this purpose, used microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, and algae for removing heavy metals.
In this study the use of non-living fungal of Penicillium camemberti as biosorbent for removal of copper ions from aqueous solution was investigated in batch system and fixed bed column. In the batch system, for the biological absorption of copper, the parameters of temperature, pH, the dosage of biosorbent and contact time were optimized. In the kinetic study of the biosorption of copper metal by means of the non-living fungus, the Lagergren intraparticle diffusion models have been used.
Findings: Considering the obtained results, it is determined that the biological absorption of copper using fungus follows from the second order equation because in the second order state, the amounts of qcal are close to the amounts of qexp and also R2>0/97.The results also demonstrate that an intra-particle diffusion mechanism play a significant role in the sorption process. In continues system, the biosorbent was turned into granul and the effects of hight and flow rate studied. The structure of Penicillium camemberti was characterized by IR spectrometer.
Disscusion and The results also demonstrate that adsorption mechanism plays a significant role in the sorption process. The maximum biosorption obtained from the batch process was 86/52% for biomass in pH=5/5.