Biosorption of Lead from Aqueous Solution by Rhodotorula aurantiaca

The aim of this work was to investigate the adsorption isotherm and kinetic model for the biosorption of lead $(Pb^{2+})$ by Rhodotorula aurantiaca and to examine the environmental factors for this metal removal. Within five minutes of contact, $Pb^{2+}$ sorption reached nearly 86% of the total $Pb^{2+}$ sorption. The optimum initial pH value for removal of $Pb^{2+}$ was 5.0. The percentage sorption increased steeply with the biomass concentration up to 2 g/l and thereafter remained more or less constant. The Langmuir sorption model provided a good fit throughout the concentration range. The conformity of these data to the Langmuir model indicated that biosorption of $Pb^{2+}$ by R. aurantiaca could be characterized as a monolayer, single-site type phenomenon with no interaction between ions adsorbed in neighboring sites. The maximum $Pb^{2+}$ sorption capacity $(q_{max})$ and Langmuir constant (b) were 46.08 mg/g of biomass and 0.04 l/mg, respectively. The pseudo second-order equation was well fitted to the experimental data. The correlation coefficients for the linear plots of t/q against t for the second-order equation were 0.999 for all the initial concentrations of biosorbent for contact times of 180 min. The theoretical $q_{eq}$ value was very close to the experimental $q_{eq}$ value.