POTENTIAL OF CORN HUSK LEAVES FOR THE CO-REMOVAL OF PHENOL AND CYANIDE FROM WASTE WATER USING SIMULTANEOUS ADSORPTION AND BIODEGRADATION

Application of biosorbents has gained a great importance in the present scenario of waste water purification. The present work concentrates on the potential of biosorbent, Corn husk leaves, for the co-removal of phenol and cyanide from coke waste water by simultaneous adsorption and biodegradation (SAB). The microbe used in the present study is the bacteria of Serratia Sp. The entire SAB process was carried out at 30 0 C and for 60 h. Theoptimum process parameters i.e. pH, initial concentration of both phenol and cyanide, adsorbent dose of corn husk leaves were analysed and their impact on the entire process were also studied. At the range of initial concentration of phenol between 100-1000 mg/L and cyanide between 10-100 mg/L, the optimum pH was obtained between 6.57 and an optimum adsorbent dose of 6 g/L. Multicomponent adsorption isotherms applied were Non-modified Langmuir, Modified Langmuir, Extended Langmuir and Extended Freundlich. Out of the four isotherms applied non-modified Langmuir isotherm proved to be the best fit for phenol and modified Langmuir isotherm was found to be best fit for cyanide. Phenol showed a removal percentage of 75 % by SAB process and cyanide showed a removal percentage of 83 %. The data was also non-linearly modelled for kinetic studies. Kinetic studies revealed that for both phenol and cyanide simultaneous adsorption and biodegradation took place by physisorption as well as by chemisorption. Surface diffusion is dominating for the simultaneous adsorption and biodegradation of phenol whereas in case of cyanide intraparticle diffusion is the dominating factor.