RESUMO
This paper investigated the adsorption of a dye, acid turquoise blue A, by four kinds of sludges including activated sludge, anaerobic sludge, dried activated sludge, and dried anaerobic sludge, respectively. The roles of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) including the soluble EPS (SEPS) and bound EPS (BEPS) for the biosorption of activated sludge and anaerobic sludge were further studied. Results show that the relation between four kinds of sludge adsorption amount and remained concentration of the dye fitted well both Freundlich model (R2: 0.921-0.995) and Langmuir model (R2: 0.958-0.993), but not quite fitted BET model (R2: 0.07-0.863). The adsorption capability of dried anaerobic sludge ranked the highest, and dried activated sludge was the lowest. According to Langmuir isotherm, the maximum adsorption amount of dried anaerobic, anaerobic, activated, and dried activated sludge was 104 mg/g, 86 mg/g, 65 mg/g, 20 mg/g, respectively. The amount of the dye found in EPS for both activated sludge and anaerobic sludge were over 50%, illustrating that EPS adsorption was predominant in adsorption of the dye by sludge. The amount of adsorbed dye by BEPS was greater than that by SEPS for anaerobic sludge, but for activated sludge the result was quite opposite. The amount of adsorbed dye by unit mass SEPS was much higher than the corresponding values of BEPS for both sludges. The average amount of adsorbed dye by unit mass SEPS was 52 times of the corresponding value of BEPS for activated sludge, and 10 times for anaerobic sludge. The relation between adsorption amount of dye by BEPS from anaerobic sludge and remained concentration of the dye in mixed liquor was best fitted to Langmuir model (R2: 0.9986).
