Biosorption of naphthalene from refinery simulated waste-water on blank alginate beads and immobilized dead algal cells

The potential use of blank alginate beads and immobilized dead algal cells for the removal of naphthalene from aqueous solutions was investigated in this study. The effects of contact time, solution pH, and naphthalene concentration on the sorption of naphthalene on blank alginate beads or immobilized dead algal cells were studied. The effect of the presence of other pollutants on the sorption of naphthalene on immobilized dead algal cells was also studied. Batch adsorption experiments showed that the removal of naphthalene on both sorbents was pH dependent and significant removal of naphthalene was obtained at pH 4. Dynamic sorption experiments revealed that the biosorption of naphthalene on either sorbent was rapid where the equilibrium uptake occurred within 10 minutes, and the biosorption of naphthalene on either sorbent followed the pseudo-second order kinetics. Analysis of the equilibrium sorption data showed that naphthalene sorption on either sorbent could be fitted to the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherm equations. Competitive biosorption experiments showed that biosorption of naphthalene on immobilized dead algal cells was adversely affected by the presence of either heavy metals such as copper and nickel, and chelating agents such as citric acid.