Cr(VI) Removal from Industrial Wastewater using Immobilized Algae

Industrial effluent with heavy metals is a threat to the species in the aquatic environment.It will be the boon if the effluent are free from heavy metals before discharged to these environment.Removal of these heavy metals would make the aquatic world free of pollution.The present research work describes the absorption of heavy metals Cr (VI) from industrial wastewater by immobilization of Spirulina platensis in sodium alginate beads.Biosorption is the phenomenon followed in this work for removal of heavy metals.The effects of pH, adsorbent dose, initial concentration and bead depth on the adsorption of chromium by the biomass were studied.The optimum removal percentage of Cr (VI) was observed at pH 2 for with algae and pH 6 for without algae.For optimum conditions the removal efficiency of synthetic chromium was observed to be 78% and 95% with and without algae respectively.Removal efficiency of 82% was found for industrial effluent of triton valves using algae as biosorbent.Hence for the removal of chromium wastewater Spirulina platensis proved to be an efficient biosorbent.