โ Scribed by M. Tsezos; D. M. Keller
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Selected samples of waste microbial biomass used in industrial fermentation processes and wastewater biological treatment plants have been studied for their radium biosorption ability from aqueous solutions. Equilibrium biosorption isotherms have been used to quantify the radium uptake capacity of the various types of biomass which were also compared to two types of activated carbon. Solution pH affected the observed uptake significantly. In general, the biomass types that showed appreciable sorption capacity exhibited maximum uptake between pH 7 and 10. The uptake was reduced considerably at pH 4 and little or no uptake was observed at pH 2. Radium biosorptive uptake capacities of the order of 4.5 X lo4 nCi/g, at pH 7 and at an equilibrium radium concentration of 1000 pCi/L, were determined for a mixed culture, while the biomass of Penicilfium chrysogenurn adsorbed 5 X lo4 nCi/g radium under the same conditions. The highest uptake value for a sample of F-400 granular activated carbon was 3600 nCi/g at pH 7 and lo00 pCi/L radium concentration. The biosorptive radium uptake of microbial biomass is compared to literature values for other types of adsorbents. The most effective biomass types studied exhibited radium removals in excess of 99% of the radium in solution.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
Lichens, formerly considered as weathering agents in a geological context, are shown to be capable of biodeteriorating stone substrata within a relatively short time-scale. Detailed Raman spectroscopic studies have demonstrated the highly destructive properties of calcium oxalate produced by lichen
This report gives details of the first inter-laboratory comparison of gamma-spectrometry to be run within SPERA, the South Pacific Environmental Radioactivity Association since its inauguration in 1991. Laboratories in Australia, Chile, French Polynesia and New Zealand participated in the exercise.
An adsorption and ยฎltration process for the recovery of proteins and other biological compounds from aqueous streams has been developed, using cellulose-based ยฎbrous materials. Of the many cellulose derivatives studied, cellulose acetate ยฎbrets (CAF) and cellulose triacetate ยฎbrets (CTF) have been s