The removal and recovery of copper (II) ions from wastewater by magnetite immobilized cells of Pseudomonas putida 5-X
Magnetite-immobilized cells of Pseudomonas putida 5-X can be used as biosorbent in copper removal from aqueous solutions. Dilute HCl pretreated magnetite-immobilized cells of Pseudomonas putida 5-X were used in this study for the treatment of wastewater streams containing copper (II) concentrations as high as 100 mg/L. The biosorbent removal and recovery operations were carried out using a series of three batch type biosorption reactors. It was observed that the dilute HCl pretreated magnetite-immobilized cells of Pseudomonas putida 5-X had higher biosorption capacity than that observed on the fresh cells of magnetite-immobilized cells of Pseudomonas putida 5-X. The removal and recovery rates of biosorbent were 96% and 95%, respectively. The process was reversible. The concentrations of copper ion (II) in the recovery solution could be as high as 1.4 g/L and could be successfully recovered using 0.6 N HCl.