ABSTRACT
The objective of the work was to evaluate the biosorption of thorium by the seaweed Sargassum filipendula in a dynamic system. Different bed depths were tested with the purpose of evaluating the critical bed depth for total uptake of the radioactive element. Several bed depths were tested, ranging from 5.0 to 40.0 cm. Bed depths tested presented distinct capacities to accumulate thorium. An increase in biosorption efficiency was observed with an increase in bed depth. The 30.0 cm bed produced an effluent still containing detectable levels of thorium. The critical bed depth suitable for a complete removal of thorium by S.filipendula biomass was equal to 40.0 cm.
Subject(s)
Bioreactors , Computer-Aided Design , Models, Biological , Sargassum/metabolism , Thorium/pharmacokinetics , Water Pollutants, Radioactive/pharmacokinetics , Biodegradation, Environmental , Computer Simulation , Equipment Design , Equipment Failure AnalysisABSTRACT
In the present work, the biosorption of radioactive thorium was investigated using a dry biomass of Sargassum filipendula as the biosorbent material. Radioactive solutions containing between 2.0 and 500.0 microg thorium were tested by biosorption with S. filipendula, yielding uptake capacities from 20 to 100%, depending on the concentration of the solution. Kinetic studies indicated that equilibrium between the thorium solution and the solid fraction was achieved after three hours of contact and that a second-order model could express the equilibrium kinetics. In order to investigate the maximum biosorption capacity of the biomass an isotherm was done, based on the experimental data, which revealed the maximum uptake capacity to be 2.59 micromol thorium/g biomass. The experimental data fitted well to a Langmuir model, which provided a good correlation between the experimental and predicted thorium uptake values.
