Evaluation of Chromium (VI) Removal Process Fromaqueous Solutions Using Powdered Algae Spirogyra porticalis

The use of living and nonliving bio sorbents to removal of heavy metals andtoxic compounds from aqueous solutions and industrial wastewaters has revealed considerable highly potential of green algae for adsorption. Spirogyra porticalis is filamentous algae that can often form flimsy green aggregates in freshwater ponds, rivers and streams. The present study aimed to determine the capability of powdered s. porticalis to remove chromium from aqueous solutions.
Biosorption of Cr (VI) from synthetic aqueous solutions by powdered filamentous green algae Spirogyra porticalis was investigated as an effect of various parameters including pH, biomass dosage, initial Cr (VI) concentration and contact time in laboratory scale batch. In order to do the statistical analysis, repeated measure testand one-way analysis of variance using SPSS 16.0 software was applied and P The findings showed that the removal of Cr (VI) increased with the increasing algal dosage, metal concentration, contact time and decreasing pH. Maximum biosorption capacity was observed at pH 3.0 and 1 g/L of biomass in 60 min from a solution containing 40 mg/L initial concentration of Cr (VI). Under the optimum conditions, the removal percentage of chromium (VI) was found to be 70%.
The results of the study indicated that the powdered filamentous green algae s. porticalis can be used as an available, affordable and efficient biomaterial even in low dosages to remove Cr (VI) from industrial acidic wastewater and aqueous solutions.