Biosorption of Organic Pollutants by Activated Sludge: Equilibrium and Kinetic Modeling

Biosorption of organic pollutants, expressed as COD, by aerobic and anaerobic sludge was conducted to examine equilibrium and kinetic models. Freundlich and Langmuir models were mostly used for mathematical description of the biosorption equilibrium. Freundlich equation was more fit to describe the equilibrium of biosorption process in this study. Under the same experimental condition, biosorptive capability of aerobic sludge was greater than that of anaerobic sludge. The biosorption processes by aerobic and anaerobic sludge were governed by intraparticle diffusion. For both anaerobic and aerobic sludge , the whole biosorption processes followed Pseudo-second order model rather than Pseudo first-order model.