Kinetic modelling of adsorptive removal of Anthracene using a newly isolated bacteria Bacillus flexus AP-14

Subhabrata Dasa,* , Alok Kumarb, Debjani Duttac, Surabhi Chaudhurid

a,c,d

Department of Biotechnology, b Department of Earth &Environmental Studies, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, Durgapur -713209 ABSTRACT

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons like anthracene, naphthalene etc. are a class of toxic pollutants that have accumulated in the environment due to both natural and anthropogenic activities. Anthracene is known to be toxic, mutagenic & carcinogenic, and its accumulation in soil and aquifers is a great environmental concern. This study investigates the adsorption potential of live and dead cell biomass obtained from newly isolated bacteria Bacillus flexus AP-14 to remove anthracene from methanolic solution. The potential use of cell biomass as an abundant low cost adsorbent for anthracene remval in a batch process was evaluated. The influencing parameters of the adsorption process such as adsorbent dose, initial anthracene concentration and r.p.m. were studied in Batch experiments. The maximum percentage removal of anthracene was found to be 97.26% at 398 K with 120 r.p.m. shaker speed at an initial anthracene concentration of 250 ppm, using live cells of Bacillus flexus AP-14. Kinetic modeling of the process was done using Pseudo 1st order model, Pseudo 2nd order model, Intra-particle diffusion model, Lagergren model, Modified pseudo second order model, Reversible first order model, Liquid film diffusion model and Elvoich model. Pseudo second order kinetic model fitted our experimental data best with R2 values 0.994 and 0.993 for dead and living cell biomass respectively. The results indicate that cell biomass derived from Bacillus flexus AP-14 can be used as an effective and low-cost adsorbent for removal of anthracene.
Keywords: Adsorption, Bacillus flexus AP-14, anthracene, Equilibrium and Kinetics. Both a and b contributed equally for the work. *corresponding author