Use of calcium alginate beads and Saccharomyces cerevisiae for biosorption of 241Am

Calcium alginate beads, inactivated Saccharomyces cerevisiae and inactivated S. cerevisiae immobilized in calcium alginate beads (S. cerevisiae-calcium alginate beads) are examined as potential biosorption materials as regards their capacity to remove Am-241. In this study, initial experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of pH (2 and 4) and Am-241 initial concentration: 75, 150, and 300 Bq mL(-1). The experiments were conducted in a batch reactor. Higher removal capacity was observed at pH 2 with the use of S. Cerevisiae, whereas pH 4 performed better for the essays with calcium alginate beads and S. Cerevisiae-calcium alginate beads. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model described the kinetics of biosorption. Calcium alginate was the adsorbent of choice to further experiments with synthetic organic liquid waste. A lower removal rate was observed in the organic waste, although calcium alginate beads have also been able to achieve high sorption capacity in less than 4 h. With the organic waste, the highest value of sorption capacity of Am-241 was 4.38 x 10(-7) mmol g(-1) with an initial Am-241 concentration of 2.31 x 10(-8) mmol L-1.