Kinetic Modeling of Biosorption of Heavy Metals by Loofa-sponge Immobilized Phanerochaete chrysosporium From Aqueous Solution

Mat of mycelia of Phanerochaete chrysosporium were immobilized on loofa-sponge discs, as an inert support, to obtain a suitable biosorbent .Mean amount of immobilized P.chrysosporium on loofa-sponge was 376 mgg of dry loofa-sponge. In this study immobilized P.chrysosporium and naked loofa-sponge discs were used as biosorbent to remove Pb (II) and Cd (II) from aqueous solution .At kinetic study residual concentration of metal ions was determined after contacting for up to 120 min. Equilibrium was established in about 60 min for both metals. The maximum uptake of Pb and Cd was 88.9 mgg and 63.1mgg -1 for immobilized P.chrysosporium and 21.6mgg and 16.5 mggfor naked loofa-sponge, respectively. In order to examine the controlling mechanism of biosorption process, kinetic models were used to test the experimental data and kinetics was found to be best-fit pseudo-second-order equation.