Poster Presentation 3-15
Continuous Biotreatment of Copper Concentrated Solutions by Biosorption
with Sargassum sp.
Antonio Carlos Augusto da Costa
a, Flávia Pinto Padilhab and Francisca Pessôa de Françab
a
Universidade do Estado do Rio de JaneiroCentro de Tecnologia e Ciências
Instituto de Química
Departamento de Tecnologia de Processos Bioquímicos
R. S. Francisco Xavier 524, PHLC
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 20550-013
Telefax: 55-21-25877227
E-mail: acosta@uerj.br
b
Universidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroCentro de Tecnologia, Escola de Química
Departamento de Engenharia Bioquímica
Ilha do Fundão, Cidade Universitária
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 21941-590
E-mail: fpfranca@eq.ufrj.br
Seaweed Sargassum sp. biomass recovered high quantities of ionic copper from highly concentrated solutions simulating effluents from industrial activities. In the case of solutions containing copper in the form of chloride, sulphate and nitrate salts, the best pH for the recovery of copper was pH 4.5. It was observed that copper biosorption from copper nitrate solutions was higher than the recovery of copper from copper chloride or sulphate solutions. The continuous system used was constituted of four column reactors filled with the biomass of Sargassum sp. and showed high operational stability. Biomass of Sargassum sp. in the reactors was gradually saturated from the bottom to the top of each column reactor. The biomass of Sargassum sp. in the first column saturated first, followed by a gradual saturation of the remaining columns due to pre-concentration performed by the biomass in the first column. The biomass of Sargassum in the bioreactors completely biosorbed the cumulative ionic copper contained in 63 liters of copper sulphate solution, 72 liters of copper chloride solution and 72 liters of copper nitrate solution, all the solutions containing copper at 500 mg/L. Effluents produced after biosorption contained copper concentrations smaller than 0.5 mg/L.