H Dastebashi - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
S. M. A Moosavian - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
A.R Keshtkar - Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
S. J Safdarib

Nickel (II) is present in several industrial wastewaters and it can cause health and environmental hazards above certain concentrations. Equilibrium studies have shown the feasibility of using Porotonated cystoseria indica algae for nickel removal from aqueous solutions by biosorption. However, for the design and operation of nickel biosorption processes, dynamic flow studies are required. The objective of the study was to examine nickel removal from an aqueous solution using a fixed-bed column with Porotonated cystoseria indica algae as a biosorbent. The dynamic behavior of the biosorption column was investigated through experiments and the influence of operating conditions, such as initial nickel concentration, flow rate and amount of biosorbent (bed height). All the results suggested that Porotonated cystoseria indica as adsorbent to removal nickel (II) from solution prove efficient, and the rate of biosorption process is speedy. Furthermore, the efficiency of adsorption is high. When the flow rate was 0.252 l/h, the influent concentration of nickel was 100 mg /l and bed height of the column was 6 cm, the biosorption capacity obtained at optimum conditions was 95.7 mg /g.

Biosorption, Porotonated Cystoseria Indica, Nickel, Fixed- Bed Column, Breakthrough Curve