Utilization of fermentation waste (Corynebacterium glutamicum) for biosorption of Reactive Black 5 from aqueous solution

A fermentation waste, Corynebacterium glutamicum, was successfully employed as a biosorbent for Reactive Black 5 (RB5) from aqueous solution. This paper initially studied the effect of pretreatment on the biosorption capacity of C. glutamicum toward RB5, using several chemical agents, such as HCl, H2SO4, HNO3, NaOH, Na2CO3, CaCl2 and NaCl. Among these reagents, 0.1 M HNO3 gave the maximum enhancement of the RB5 uptake, exhibiting 195 mg/g at pH 1 with an initial RB5 concentration of 500 mg/l. The solution pH and temperature were found to affect the biosorption capacity, and the biosorption isotherms derived at different pHs and temperatures revealed that a low pH (pH 1) and high temperature (35 deg. C) favored biosorption. The biosorption isotherm was well represented using three-parameter models (Redlich-Peterson and Sips) compared to two-parameter models (Langmuir and Freundlich models). As a result, high correlation coefficients and low average percentage error values were observed for three-parameter models. A maximum RB5 uptake of 419 mg/g was obtained at pH 1 and a temperature of 35 deg. C, according to the Langmuir model. The kinetics of the biosorption process with different initial concentrations (500-2000 mg/l) was also monitored, and the data were analyzed using pseudo-first and pseudo-second order models, with the latter describing the data well. Various thermodynamic parameters, such as ΔGo, ΔHo and ΔSo, were calculated, indicating that the present system was a spontaneous and endothermic process. The use of a 0.1 M NaOH solution successfully desorbed almost all the dye molecules from dye-loaded C. glutamicum biomass at different solid-to-liquid ratios examined