Utilization of Thamnidium elegans fungal culture in environmental cleanup: A reactive dye biosorption study

In this study, the potential of biomaterial obtained from filamentous fungi, Thamnidium elegans was investigated for the batch and dynamic flow mode biosorption of Reactive Red 198 (RR198). The effects of pH, biosorbent amount, contact time, initial dye concentration and ionic strength were evaluated in addition to the investigation of its biosorption performance in the presence of other dyes in the biosorption medium. High biosorption yields were recorded by using small amount of biosorbent in a relatively short time. The biosorption process followed by the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Langmuir isotherm models. Maximum monolayer dye biosorption capacity of biosorbent was found as 234.24 mg g(-1) in batch conditions. Biosorption-desorption studies indicated that T. elegans has relatively good regeneration ability. Also the suggested biomaterial exhibited high biosorption yield in competitive and real wastewater conditions. The dye removal mechanism was evaluated by IR, SEM and zeta potential analysis. Overall, batch and dynamic-flow mode studies indicated that this environmentally friendly biosorbent may be an alternative for the removal of reactive dyes from contaminated media. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.