Simultaneous removal of Cu(II) and reactive green 6 dye from wastewater using immobilized mixed fungal biomass and its recovery

Immobilized fungal biomass (Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus) was prepared and analysed for the simultaneous removal of Cu(II) ion and Reactive Green 6 dye from aqueous phase. Different characterization analysis was utilized to exploit the adsorption characteristics of fungal biomass. Batch biosorption tests, performed to investigate the factors influencing biosorption process inferred optimal values of 25 mg/L of adsorbate with equilibrium time of 60 min, 2.5 g of immobilized fungal biomass, temperature of 303 K and pH of 5.0 for the maximal removal of pollutants. The obtained experimental data was utilized to evaluate the kinetic, thermodynamic and equilibrium models. Langmuir isotherm model has higher correlation coefficient [Cu(II) ion = 0.8625 and RG 6 dye = 0.8575] with small values of errors (RMSE = 3.746 and SSE = 56.12 for Cu(II) ion; RMSE = 4.872 and SSE = 11.87 for RG 6 dye). Kinetic studies performed to evaluate the adsorption rate mechanism of this present study indicated that pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetics to be most fitting model for removal of Cu(II) ions and Reactive green dye respectively. Thermodynamic analysis inferred the spontaneous, random, and exothermic nature of the biosorption process based on Delta G(o), Delta H-o, and Delta S-o values respectively. The prepared biomass can be an alternative for the elimination of toxic pollutants from wastewater. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.