Treatment of methanol industry effluent using algal biomass,Gelidium omanense- kinetic modeling

Abstract

Abstract In this research, the biosorption potential of marine algae, Gelidium omanense, was investigated to remove methanol from industrial wastewater. The influence of operating variables, namely effluent pH (5 -11), effluent concentration (25–100%), algae dose (0.5 – 4.0\xa0g/L), temperature (30 - 40\xa0°C) and agitation speed (0–150\xa0rpm) on COD removal was studied. The optimal pH was measured at 7.0 for highest COD removal. The increase in effluent concentration decreased the COD removal efficiency. A linear empirical relation between algae dose and COD removal efficiency was found. Enhanced COD removal was achieved at higher temperatures due to the decrease in the boundary layer surrounding the biosorbent. The statistical analysis was performed for adsorption data by hypothesis testing, applying t test and paired t test to test the optimum value of the process pH, agitation speed, algae dose and to verify the success of adsorption experiment. The comparison of calculated and tabulated values of t favored the adsorption data. Power function model fitted better with the biosorption data than pseudo-second order model. The power function model constant (kP) increased with increase in effluent COD. This research study proved that the locally available marine algae Gelidium omanense collected from the Oman sea cost was able to efficiently remove COD by 80% in a real industrial wastewater contaminated with methanol.