Biosorption of Congo Red and Methylene Blue by pretreated waste Streptomyces fradiae biomass – Equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies

Abstract

Pretreated waste Streptomyces fradiae biomass was utilized as an eco-friendly sorbent for Congo Red (CR) and Methylene Blue (MB) removal from aqueous solutions. The biosorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Batch experiments were conducted to study the effect of pH, biosorbent dosage, initial concentration of adsorbates, contact time and temperature on the biosorption of the two dyes. The equilibrium adsorption data were analysed using Freundlich and Langmuir models. Both models fitted well the experimental data. The maximum biosorption capacity of the pre­treated Streptomyces fradiae biomass was 46.64 mg g^-1 for CR and 59.63 mg g^-1 for MB, at a pH 6.0, with the contact time of 120 min, the  biosorbent dosage of 2 g dm^-3 and the temperature of 298 K. Lagergren and Ho kinetic models were used to analyse the kinetic data obtained from different batch experi­ments. The biosorption of both dyes followed better the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The calculated values for ΔG, ΔS, and ΔH indicated that the bio­sorption of CR and MB onto the waste pretreated biomass was feasible, spon­taneous, and exothermic in the selected temperature range and conditions.