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Open Access | Published on December 3, 2013

Biosorption of manganese (II) and aluminium (III) ions from aqueous solution by immobilized Trichoderma asperellum BHU216

Omeike S.O.
Balogun S.A.
Adewuyi S.
Abstract

Removal of Al3+ and Mn2+ from solution by Trichoderma asperellum BHU216 immobilized on Irvingia gabonensis matrix in a batch system was investigated. Effect of biosorption conditions contact time, pH, bead size and spore load were studied. Equilibrium isotherms and re-usability of biosorbent were also determined. The result showed that optimum sorption of Mn2+ and Al3+ by immobilized sorbent was achieved at 7 mm bead size and 1.6 g l-1 spore load. Optimum pH were 5 and 6 while equilibrium was attained at 120 and 180 mins for Mn2+ and Al3+ sorption respectively. Immobilized biosorbent was used in more than 5 batch cycles with over 50% removal achieved in 3 and 5 cycles for Al3+ and Mn2+ sorption. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) isotherm had the best-fit than both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms for both metals (R2 =0.98 and 0.92 for Mn2+ and Al3+ respectively). Manganese sorption proceeded at both surface and multi-layer levels with high sorption rates 18.88 mg/L and 19.72 mg l-1, while aluminium sorption was feasible in a multi-layer process with low uptake (0.87 mg g-1). This study showed that immobilized T. asperellum BHU216 can effectively act as biosorbent for Mn(II) and Al(III) sorption from solution.

Keywords
II, Manganese, III, Aluminium, Immobilization matrix, Irvingia gabonensis, Trichoderma asperellum BHU216, Equilibrium Isotherm models