Purpose Heavy metals are toxic pollutants released into the environment as a result of different industrial activities. Biosorption of heavy metals from aqueous solutions is a new technology for the treatment of industrial wastewater. The aim of the present research is to highlight the basic biosorption theory to heavy metal removal. Materials and methods Heterogeneous cultures mostly dried anaerobic bacteria, yeast (fungi), and protozoa were used as low-cost material to remove metallic cations Pb(II), Cr(III), and Cd(II) from synthetic wastewater. Competitive biosorption of these metals was studied. Results The main biosorption mechanisms were complexation and physical adsorption onto natural active functional groups. It is observed that biosorption of these metals was a surface process. The main functional groups involved in these processes were hydroxyl (–OH) and carboxylic groups (C=O) with 37, 52, and 31 and 21, 14, and 34 % removal of Pb(II), Cr(III), and Cd(II), respectively. Langmuir was the best model for a single system. While extended Langmuir was the best model for binary and ternary metal systems. The maximum uptake capacities were 54.92, 34.78, and 29.99 mg/g and pore diffusion coefficients were 7.23, 3.15, and 2.76 × 10−11 m2/s for Pb(II), Cr(III), and Cd(II), respectively. Optimum pH was found to be 4. Pseudo-second-order was the best model to predict the kinetic process. Biosorption process was exothermic and physical in nature. Conclusions Pb(II) offers the strongest component that is able to displace Cr(III) and Cd(II) from their sites, while Cd(II) ions are the weakest adsorbed component.
Microorganisms have an active role in biotechnology for example yeasts, especially in some genus like Saccharomyces, Pichia, and Candida. C.tropicalis one of the most important species of Candida and despite it is one of the causative agents of candidiasis but it has a major role in the production of many chemical compounds. C.tropicalis in the previous study was isolated from sheep dung and morphologically and molecularly classified the result of sequencing was elucidate 100% similarity between the studied isolate and other isolates inserted in DNA Data Bank of Japan DDBJ, physiologically this isolate tolerated 6% ethanol concentration in broth media with the ability to the pro
... Show MoreThe present work aims to study the possibility of utilization a forward osmosis desalination process as an alternative method to extract water from brine solution rejected from reverse osmosis process.
Experiments conducted in a laboratory–scale forward osmosis (FO) unit in cross flow flat sheet membrane cell yielded water flux ranging from (0.0315 to 0.56 L/m2 .min) when using CTA membrane,and ranging from (0.419 to 2.785 L/m2 .min) for PA membrane under 0.4 bar. Two possible membrane orientations were tested. Sodium chloride with high concentrations was used as draw solution solute. The effect of membrane orientation on internal concentration polarization (ICP) was studied. Two regimes of ICP; dilutive and concentrative were desc
This work deals with thermal cracking of heavy vacuum gas oil which produced from the top of vacuum distillation unit at Al- DURA refinery, by continuous process. An experimental laboratory plant scale was constructed in laboratories of chemical engineering department, Al-Nahrain University and Baghdad University. The thermal cracking process was carried out at temperature ranges between 460-560oC and atmospheric pressure with liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) equal to 15hr-1.The liquid product from thermal cracking unit was distilled by atmospheric distillation device according to ASTM D-86 in order to achieve two fractions, below 220oC as a gasoline fraction and above 220oC as light cycle o
... Show MoreIn this study, concentrations of radon were measured for seventeen samples of soil distributed in three Sulphuric Spring, in addition to other regions as a background in Hit City in AL-Anbar Governorate. The radon concentrations in soil samples measured by using alpha-emitters registration that emits from radon (222Rn) in (CR-39) track detector. The concentrations values were calculated by a comparison with standard samples. The results show that the radon concentrations in first spring varies from (258.253- 347.762 Bq/m3), second spring (230.374-305.209 Bq/m3), third spring (292.002-336.023 Bq/m3) and the average radon concentration in other regions (187.821 Bq/m3). As a conclusion of the study radon concentration in Sulphuric Spring is r
... Show MoreThe presence of hydrocarbons in the soil is considered one of the main problems of pollution. In our current study, eight samples isolated from soil saturated with hydrocarbons were taken from different areas of Baghdad, Iraq. In this study, 5 isolates belonging to Pseudomonas aeruginosa by 99%, 4 isolates to Klebsiella pneumoniae by 98%, and 3 isolates to Enterobacter hormaechei by 97% were diagnosed in different ways. A molecular examination was also conducted by 16sRNA. We recorded P. aeruginosa, K. Pneumoniae and E. hormaechei as new local isolates in NCBI. In addition, a comparison was made between our isolates and the global isolates to determine the degree of convergence in the evolutionary line. The genes alkB and nahAc7 were diagno
... Show MoreThis research aimed to examine the effect of concentration of dyes stuff, contact time, temperature and ratio of adsorbent weight in (gm) to volume of solution in (ml) on the percentage removal. Two dyes were used; direct blue 6 and direct yellow and the adsorbent was the maize cob. Batch experiments were performed by contacting different weights of adsorbent with 50 ml of solution of desired concentration with continuous stirring at various temperatures. The percentage of removal was calculated and the maximum percentage of removal was 80%. And as the concentration of solution, contact time, temperature and the ratio of adsorbent to volume of solution increase the percentage of removal increase.
Pharmaceuticals are widely distributed in different applications and also released into the environment. Adsorption of Ciprofloxacin HCl (CIPH) on Porcelinaite was studied at ambient conditions. The adsorption isotherms can be well described using the Freundlich and Temkin equations. The pH of the solution influences significantly the adsorption capacity of Porcelinaite, the adsorption of CIPH increased from the initial pH 1.3 and then decreased over the pH rang of 3.8-9. The adsorption is sensitive to the change in ionic Strength, which indicate that electrostatic attraction is a significant mechanism for sorption process. The enthalpy change (∆H) for the adsorption of CIPH onto Porcelinaite signifies an endothermic adsorption. The ∆G
... Show MoreThe Wheat husk is one of the common wastes abundantly available in the Middle East countries especially in Iraq. The present study aimed to evaluate the Wheat husk as low cost material, eco-friendly adsorbents for the removal of the carcinogenic dye (Congo red dye) from wastewater by investigate the effect of, at different conditions such as, pH(3-10), amount of adsorbents (1-2.3gm/L),and particle size (125-1000) μm, initial Congo red dye concentration(10, 25 , 50 and 75mg/l) by batch experiments. The results showed that the removal percentage of dye increased with increasing adsorbent dosage, and decreasing particle size. The maximum removal and uptake reached (91%) , 21.5mg/g, respectively for 25 initial concent
... Show MoreIn this work, a novel biocatalytic process for the production of 7-methylxanthines from theobromine, an economic feedstock has been developed. Bench scale production of 7-methlxanthine has been demonstrated. The biocatalytic process used in this work operates at 30 OC and atmospheric pressure, and is environmentally friendly. The biocatalyst was E. coli BL21(DE3) engineered with ndmB/D genes combinations. These modifications enabled specific N7- demethylation of theobromine to 7-methylxanthine. This production process consists of uniform fermentation conditions with a specific metabolically engineered strain, uniform induction of specific enzymes for 7-methylxanthine production, uniform recovery an
... Show MoreThe removal of boron from aqueous solution was carried out by electrocoagulation (EC) using magnesium electrodes as anode and stainless steel electrodes as cathode. Several operating parameters on the removal efficiency of boron were investigated, such as initial pH, current density, initial boron ion concentration, NaCl concentration, spacing between electrodes, electrode material, and presence of carbonate concentration. The optimum removal efficiency of 91. 5 % was achieved at a current density of 3 mA/cm² and pH = 7 using (Mg/St. St. ) electrodes, within 45 min of operating time. The concentration of NaCl was o. 1 g/l with a 0.5cm spacing between the electrodes. First and second order rate equation were applied to study adsorp
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