Copper biosorption in a column of pretreated Aspergillus niger biomass

In this study, biosorption of Cu(II) was investigated in a column of pretreated Aspergillus niger biomass. The breakthrough was measured as a function of influent flow rate and bed height for a feed solution at 10 mg/l metal ion concentration. Biosorption was evaluated in terms of the equilibrium capacity of the column and the amount of metal loading on the A. niger surface. It has been observed that pretreatment of the biomass enhanced the activity of the surface reactive groups and hence the uptake. The breakthrough data obtained was described by bed depth service time (BDST) and Thomas models. The amount of copper adsorbed per gram of pretreated A. niger was 13.4 ± 0.60 mg/g. The sorbed copper was eluted from the column using 0.1N HCl in five consecutive sorption–desorption cycles. For the same initial metal ion concentration, a packed column reactor shows more uptake of Cu(II) in comparison to a batch reactor.