Biosorption of Pb(II) by industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized on the biomatrix of cone biomass of Pinus nigra: Equilibrium and mechanism analysis

The Pb(II) biosorption properties of industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized on cone biomass of Pinus nigra were investigated in a batch biosorption system. The effect of initial pH, contact time and biosorbent dosage on the biosorption process was systematically investigated. The biosorption equilibrium was attained within 30 min. Experimental data were modeled by Freundlich, Langmuir and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R) isotherms. The maximum monolayer biosorption capacity for immobilized biomass was determined as 1.45 × 10−4 mol g−1 at pH 5.0 with 2.0 g l−1 of biosorbent dosage. The Pb(II) loading ability of the low-cost biosorbent system was also tested for real industrial wastewater. The mechanism of the process was evaluated by FT-IR and EDAX analysis. The results revealed that this new biosorbent system was a promising candidate for eliminating Pb(II) from contaminated aquatic environment.