Bio-sorption of Zinc Ions by Green Algae Spirogyra

Heavy metals are among the major concerns in waste water treatment. Heavy metals are often derived from heavy industry, such as electroplating and battery factories. The treatment of this type of waste water involves high cost techniques such as ion exchange, evaporation, precipitation, membrane separation etc. The removal of toxic heavy metal ions from waste water is of great importance from an environmental view point. Bio-sorption is an effective technology, using non-living biomass to remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions. In this paper, the bio-sorption of copper ions onto the dead biomass of Spirogyra, a green algae, was investigated in batch mode. The results indicated that the biomass of Spirogyra sp. is an efficient bio-sorbent for the removal of zinc ions from aqueous solutions and bio-sorbent dose dependent. The maximum removal rate was achieved at a solution of bio-sorbent dose of 0.6 gram.