Treatment of water containing heavy metals using a novel approach of immobilized modified sludge biomass based adsorbents

The biosorption potential of modified sludge biomass (MSB) immobilized by various mechanisms was investigated for removal of Cu(II) and Cr(VI) metals. The sorption efficiency (mg g(-1)) decreased in the order Polyvinylalcohol-carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt-activated carbon (PVA-CMC-AC) > Polyvinyl alcohol-carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (PVA-CMC) > Polyvinylalcohol (PVA) > calcium alginate (CA) under the optimized operating conditions as pH of 5.0, metal concentration of 0.1 g L-1, adsorbent loading as 0.1 g MSB/100 mL and treatment time of 85 min as established in the work. The equilibrium data fitted well with Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo first order kinetic model. 20% CaCl2 was established as best eluting agent and the regenerated adsorbent can be used in 5 cycles with marginally reduced efficacy. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.