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

Abstract EN

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

The effect of some parameters e.g.

heating, biomass weight, contact time, carrier concentration and solution pH on the biosorption of 137Cs by the three chosen biomasses was studied.

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

The uptake percentage increased as the biomass weight increased.

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

Increasing the solution pH, from3 to 9 showed an insignificant effect on the uptake percentage.

The 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.