Toxic mercury has been found in many industrial and wastewater, and its removal becomes a challenging environmental protection aim. For this purpose, the biosorption of mercury on the marine green algae Enteromorpha has been studied.
The amount of mercury uptake increased steeply by increasing the weight of algae biomass and reached equilibrium for an uptake of 26 mg/g at pH 7.0 in agitation experiment. In column experiment, the mercury uptake capacity by Enteromorpha algae was found equal to 43.0 mg/g at optimum pH 7.0. The uptake process is relatively fast and equilibrium reached after 16 minutes of stirring. The biosorption mechanism is described by the kineticthermodynamic model and Temkin adsorption isotherm. Comparison of FTIR and thermal analysis of pure algae and algae material after mercury uptake indicates binding of mercury to algae biomass.
