Recovery of dilute metal ions by biosorption on river algae and its component

Book · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:248204

Fujita, Toyohisa; Kogita, Hiroki; Mamiya, Mitsuo ^[1]; Yen, W T ^[2]

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1. Akita Univ. (Japan). Mining Coll.
2. Queen`s Univ., Kingston, Ontario (Canada)

Green algae taken from an acidic mine drainage and blue-green algae take from an alkaline hot spring stream were collected and tested for their ability to recover or remove dilute metal ions. Experimental results demonstrated that unwashed blue-green algae and washed green algae effectively adsorbed base metals ions and eluted the at pH 1. It was also found that washed and dried algae adsorbed precious metal ions more effectively than unwashed algae. For example, the washed and dried blue-green algae was capable of adsorbing 0.31 kg of gold pre kg of algae. The gold from tetrachloroaurate solution which was adsorbed on washed blue-green algae was found to change to a metallic state following initial metal binding. In the case of a dilute gold complex solution leached with thiourea, only a small amount of gold could be captured by algae. Further experiments were conducted on components of the algae, such as alginic acid, agar, cellulose and chitin and mixtures of these components, in order to determine their contribution to metal adsorption characteristics. However, a mixture of these two components demonstrated both good adsorption and desorption characteristics indicating an interaction between the individual components.

• OSTI ID: 248204
• Report Number(s): CONF-9510120--; ISBN 0-87335-142-8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACID MINE DRAINAGE
ADSORPTION
ADSORPTION ISOTHERMS
AGAR
ALGAE
ALGINIC ACID
CELLULOSE
CHITIN
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CYANOBACTERIA
DRYING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GOLD
HOT SPRINGS
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES
SURFACE AREA
SURFACE POTENTIAL
WASHING
ZINC