Adsorption of copper, nickel and lead ions from synthetic semiconductor industrial wastewater by palm shell activated carbon

Granular activated carbon produced from palm kernel shell was used as adsorbent to remove copper, nickel and lead ions from a synthesized industrial wastewater.Laboratory experimental investigation was carried out to identify the effect of pH and contact time on adsorption of lead, copper and nickel from the mixed metals solution. Equilibrium adsorption experiments at ambient room temperature were carried out and fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich models. Results showed that pH 5 was the most suitable, while the maximum adsorbent capacity was at a dosage of 1 g/L, recording a sorption capacity of 1.337 mg/g for lead, 1.581 mg/g for copper and 0.130 mg/g for nickel. The percentage metal removal approached equilibrium within 30 min for lead, 75 min for copper and nickel, with lead recording 100%, copper 97% and nickel 55% removal, having a trend of Pb2+ > Cu2+ > Ni 2+. Langmuir model had higher R2 values of 0.977, 0.817 and 0.978 for copper, nickel and lead respectively, which fitted the equilibrium adsorption process more than Freundlich model for the three metals

Production, purification and biochemical characterization of cyclodextrin glucanotrans-ferase from bacillus cereus N1

Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase [CGTase], [EC .2.4.1.19] producing bacteria were isolated from different sources of soils and identified as Bacillus cereus N1 and the best source was the soil of the National Research Centre. The maximum production of the crude CGTase enzyme was observed after 48hr of incubation at 37°C producing CGTase activity of 3.5 U/ml. The effect of nutritional requirements on the CGTasc production were carried out. Soluble starch and yeast extracts were found to be the best carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The enzyme was successively purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation, DEAE-cellulose and sephadex G-100 column chromatography and the final specific activity of CGTasc enzyme was increased by 24 fold. The SDS-PAGE showed that the purified CGTase enzyme was homogenous and the molecular weight of the purified enzyme was about 75 kDa. The characterization of the enzyme exhibited optimum pH and temperature at 6.0 and 40°C, respectively. The enzyme was stable at pH 6.5 to 8.0 and retained its high activity up to 45°C

Feeding cyromazine to luhmann hens: residues in tissues and effects on some biochemical constituents

Cyromazine was fed to Lohmann hens at 0.15 ppm level supplemented the basal diet for three eeks. The build up of cyromazine residues in liver and muscles of hens up to 7th, the balance between cyromazine intake and elimination had taken place between 7 and 10 days. After cyromazine was withdrawn from the diet its residues was depleted within seven days. During the three weeks of feeding on the treated diet, the accumulated residues reduced the blood glucose and hepatic protein significantly up to two weeks, while the hepatic lipids was slightly increased on the 7th day. Also, such residues had adverse effects on the activities of alkaline phosphatase [AP] and transminases [GOT, GPT] and extend on red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin content [Hb] and packed cell volume [PCV] compared with the untreated hens