Hideshi Seki

Adsorption of lead ions on immobilized humic acid

Abstract A fundamental study of the recovery of lead from dilute solution was carried out. Humic acid (HA) was immobilized by calcium alginate gel containing activated carbon powder. To understand the adsorption mechanism of lead on the adsorbent (HA-gel), a model for complexation between divalent metal ions and carboxyl groups on organic polymers was proposed. A general model could be proposed from this work. The results show that the complexation constant of the lead-humic acid system and the number of available sites for complexation of humic acid was not influenced by immobilization. However, the alginate gel used as an immobilizing agent affected the rate of adsorption to a remarkable extent.

Removal kinetic model of oil droplet from o/w emulsion by adding methylated milk casein in flotation

In this study, o/w emulsion flotation experiments were conducted by adding methylated milk casein (MeSC). Emulsion used in this study was prepared by ultrasonic emulsification of heavy oil (bunker-A) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution. A simple kinetic model was proposed to estimate the removal rate of the oil droplets within the column. The model was based on main assumption that adsorption of single droplet adsorbed MeCS or floc onto bubble surface within flotation column. Removal rate constant, K, was defined by k(a)X(s) (S(b)τ/V), where k(a) and X(s) are overall adsorption rate and saturated adsorption density of oil droplet or floc, S(b), τ and V are bubble surface production rate, retention time of bubble swarms and emulsion volume within the column, respectively. The experiments were conducted with varying operating conditions; superficial gas velocity, column dimension and emulsion volume. K was evaluated from slope value of obtained straight line by plotting time versus ln (T/T(0)), where T/T(0) is relative turbidity. K was mostly proportional to (S(b)τ/V), which corresponds to specific surface area of bubble swarms per unit volume within the column, in the present experimental region. This result suggested that efficiency of this removal process was mainly controlled by the specific surface area of bubble swarms, and proposed model was fundamentally verified.

Flocculation of diatomite by methylated egg albumin.

A common and inexpensive protein, egg albumin, was applied to the solid-liquid separation or flocculation of diatomite. Egg albumin was methylated in a 0.05 M HCl methyl alcohol solution at room temperature. About 90% of the carboxylic groups of egg albumin could be methylated within 24 h. The adsorption of egg albumin onto diatomite at pH 6.8 was remarkably enhanced by methylation. The adsorption constant of methylated egg albumin to diatomite at 30 degrees C was about 100-fold larger than that of native egg albumin; however, the adsorption constant of methylated egg albumin decreased to about 1/100 with temperature decreasing from 30 to 6 degrees C. The saturated adsorption amount of egg albumin was also increased by the methylation. The flocculating ability of methylated egg albumin was examined with a diatomite suspension at 6 and 30 degrees C in the pH range from pH 2 to 11. The diatomite suspension was effectively flocculated by the addition of small amounts of methylated egg albumin (only 0.5-1 wt% against diatomite) over a wide pH range from pH 3 to 10.