A study of some parameters affecting the Bio sorption of 137 Cs radionuclide by non-living biomass

الملخص EN

Due to the development of nuclear science and technology, radioactive materials can pollute the environment.137Cs radionuclide is of special importance from the point of human health due to its long half life, and high toxicity.

Since this nuclide can enter the human body via the food chain and increases the radiation burden for many years, it was chosen as a tracer material in this study.

Biosorption process of radionuclides can be an effective process for the removal and recovery of radionuclide ions from aqueous solutions.

In this paper, biosorption process of 137Cs by three types of non –living biomass namely ;(waste tea leaves, peanut shell and waste sugarcane bagasse) was investigated in a batch technique.

Effects of some parameters such as: heating, biomass weight, contact time, carrier concentration and solution pH on the biosorption of 137Cs by the three chosen biomasses were studied.

Heating the biomass samples to 250oC, showed the highest uptake percentage of Cs.

The uptake percentage increased as the biomass weight increased.

Increasing carrier concentration from 10-7 to 10-4 M/L, increased the biosorbed amount of Cs (mg/g).

Increasing the solution pH, from 3 to 9 showed insignificant effect on the uptake percentage.

Sorption data have been interpreted in terms of Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms.

The results of the present study suggest that these kinds of non-living biomass can be used beneficially for cesium removal from aqueous solution.