Batch and continuous flow studies of adsorptive removal of Cr(VI) by adapted bacterial consortia immobilized in alginate beads

The adsorptive removal of Cr(VI) by alginate beads containing Cr(VI)-adapted Acinetobacter junii, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis in batch and continuous packed bed column reactors was investigated. Under optimized conditions (pH 3.0; contact time, 180 min; 30 °C; initial Cr(VI) concentration of 100 mg/L), 65.86 mg/g adsorption capacity was recorded in the batch study. When an adsorbent dosage of 1 g/L, a flow rate of 5 mL/min, a bed height of 20 cm, an initial Cr(VI) concentration of 300 mg/L was employed, a capacity of 657 mg/g was noted for the continuous column assay. The batch sorption data followed the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo second order kinetics. Five sorption/desorption cycles yielded 100%, 99.63%, 95.31%, 80.7% and 74.22% regeneration, respectively. Cr(VI) adsorption studies using spiked ground water, freshwater and domestic wastewater in a packed bed reactor demonstrated Cr(VI) removals of 64.8%, 55.08%, 56.86% respectively. Cr(VI) sorption on immobilized bacteria was confirmed with Fourier-transform infrared and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.