Sorption Performance of Live and Heat-Inactivated Loofa-Immobilized Phanerochaete chrysosporium in Mercury Removal from Aqueous Solution

The sorption behavior of loofa-immobilized Phanerochaete chrysosporium mycelia in two forms, Live (L) and Heat-Inactivated (HIA), was studied for the removal of Hg2+ ions from aqueous solution. Using the Langmuir isotherm, the two key parameters for the sorption performance, qm and the coefficient b, were obtained; the qm values for Hg2+ ions were 72.46 mg/g and 92.59 mg/g and the b coefficients were 0.073 L/mg and 0.114 L/mg for the L and HIA biosorbents, respectively. Using the Freundlich isotherm, the values of kF were determined as 13.28 and 21.30, and the values of the coefficient n were 3.22 and 3.51 for the L and HIA biosorbents, respectively. Although the biosorption data were well fitted by both the Langmuir and Freundlich models, the Langmuir isotherm gave a better fit, with a higher correlation coefficient than the Freundlich model. Moreover, the essential characteristic of the Langmuir isotherm model, described as the separation factor, was indicative of the favorable adsorption of Hg2+ onto both of the test biosorbents (0