Biosorption of acid violet dye from aqueous solutions using native biomass of a new isolate of Penicillium sp.

Laboratory investigation of the potential use of Penicillium sp. as biosorbent for the removal of acid violet dye from aqueous solution was studied with respect to pH, temperature, biosorbent, initial dye concentrations. Penicillium sp. decolourizes acid violet (30 mg l−1) within 12 h agitation of 150 rpm at pH 5.7 and temperature of 35 °C. The pellets exhibited a high dye adsorption capacity (5.88 mg g−1) for acid violet dye over a pH range (4–9); the maximum adsorption was obtained at pH 5.7. The increase of temperature favored biosorption for acid violet, but the optimum temperature was 35 °C. Adsorption kinetic data were tested using pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and kinetic studies showed that the biosorption process follows pseudo-first-order rate kinetics with an average rate constant of 0.312 min−1. Isotherm experiments were conducted to determine the sorbent–desorption behavior of examined dye from aqueous solutions using Langmuir and Freundlich equations. Langmuir parameter indicated a maximum adsorption capacity of 4.32 mg g−1 for acid violet and RL value of 0.377. Linear plot of log qe vs log Ce shows that applicability of Freundlich adsorption isotherm model. These results suggest that this fungus can be used in biotreatment process as biosorbent for acid dyes.