Bio Polymers In Waste Water

Treatment

Lecturer
Engr. Iqra Abdul Rashid
 Introduction
Contamination of aquatic media by metal ions is a
serious problem, mainly due to the discarding of
industrial wastes.
Heavy metal ions are toxic even in low
concentrations and can accumulate in living
organisms causing several disorders and diseases.
Metals undergo chemical transformations and are
non bio degradable, therefore they have serious
environmental , economic and public health issues.
 Types of treatment

Several technologies are used for the removal of metals and

organic compounds from industrial wastes like ;
• Biological treatments
• Ion Exchange
• Membrane processes
• Advanced oxidation processes
• Adsorption processes

Adsorption is now recognized as an effective, efficient and

economic method for decontamination applications.
 Adsorption

• The conventional methods such as ion exchange and

membrane separation are relatively of high cost.
• Adsorption is the most frequently applied technique
due to its advantages like variety of adsorbent materials
for high efficiency and low cost.
• Although activated carbon is one of the most popular
adsorbent for the removal of metal ions , it is not
supported now due to its high cost.
• Current investigations tend towards achieving high
removal efficiencies at relatively low cost.
 Activated carbon as an adsorbent

Activated carbon has undoubtedly been the most popular

adsorbent for waste water treatment applications throughout the
world.
This is due to its structural characteristics and porous texture
which gives it large surface area per unit volume , and , its
chemical nature which can be modified to enhance certain
properties.
Activated carbon also presents some disadvantages;
• Non selectivity
• High cost
 Natural Polymers as adsorbents

Recently numerous approaches have been studied for the

development of adsorbents from natural polymers.
The removal of metals , compounds and particulates from
solutions by using natural polymers as adsorbents is
termed as biosorption.
Different biosorptive agents include;
• Fungi
• Algae
• Seaweeds
• Polysaccharide based biopolymers like chitin and
chitosan and their derivatives.
Advantages of using Natural Polymers as adsorbents

• Efficient for the removal of wide variety of

pollutants
• High capacity
• High rate of adsorption
• Granular type with good surface area
• High physical strength
• Able to be regenerated if required
• Low cost
 Chitin and Chitosan

Chitin is the second most abundant natural

biopolymer derived from the cell walls of fungi and
insects. The degree of acetylation in chitin may be
as low as 10% and the molecular weight of this
linear polymer can be as high as 1.25*10 6 Da .

Chitosan is a product derived from N-deacetylation

of chitin in the presence of hot alkali or acid. The
degree of deacetylation ranges from 40 to 98 % and
the molecular weight ranges from 5*10 4 Da to
2*106 Da.
 Cont.

The degree of deacetylation and the degree of

polymerization , which in tern decide the
molecular weight of the polymer , are two
important parameters which decide the use of
chitosan for various applications.
 Chitosan in wastewater treatment

• Chitosan is a well known solid sorbent for transition metals because

the amino groups on the chain can serve as coordination sites.
• In addition to bindingability , it has a high content of functional
groups and is produced cheaply from naturally abundant sources.
• As a functional material chitosan offers unique characteristics like
hydrophilic nature, biocompatibility, biodegradability and affinity
towards proteins.
 Cont.

• Amine groups present in the chitosan are strongly reactive

with metal ions. Indeed nitrogen atom holds free electron
doublets that can react with the metal cations.
• Amine groups are easily protonated in acidic solutions which
may cause electrostatic attraction of anionic compounds
including some metal ions and dyes.
• The binding mechanism of metal ions to chitosan is not yet
fully understood but the processes such as adsorption and ion
exchange are said to be involved.
 Cont.

• The strong metal bindingability of chitosan is used for

the treatment of potable water for the reduction of
unwanted metal contents.
• Chitosan is very effective towards removing uranium
from water or wastewater.
• Chitosan is also effective for the removal of Cr from
the wastewater stream.
• Chitosan can also be used for the removal of Hg from
the solutions. The adsorption of mercury ions depends
upon the period of treatment.
• Chitosan can be used for the adsorption of copper,
cadmium, nickel, and zinc ions from the solution at
neutral PH.
 Cont.

• Chitosan due to its high content of amino

group and hydroxyl group is used for the
removal of dyes from the solution. The
interaction between dyes and chitosan forms
an insoluble product which can be easily
filtered out.
 Modifications of chitosan

• Modification of chitosan means imparting

special properties to it and hence enlarging
their field of potential applications.
• Modifications can be physical or chemical
• Chitosan can be physically modified to prepare
powder, nanoparticles , gel beads, membranes,
sponge, honeycomb, fibers and hollow fibers.
 1. Chitosan beads

• Chitosan has a very low specific area ranging from 2 to 30

m2/g.
• Cross linked chitosan gel beads have higher specific area of
180- 250 m2/g.
• Magnetic gel bead chitosan can be used for metal containing
slurries.
• New hybrid materials have been prepared by incorporating
chitosan onto the surface of glass beads, which are very
effective for the adsorption of transition metal ions.
• Alginate-chitosan hybrid gels can rapidly adsorb heavy metal
ions.
 Cont.

• Cross linked chitosan beads have very high

adsorption capacities to remove anionic dyes. The
capacity ranges from 1900 to 2500 g/ kg.
• High capacity of cross linked chitosan beads is
due to the presence of amino groups which are
easily protonated in acidic medium. This causes a
strong electrostatic attraction between the anionic
dye and chitosan.
• 1 gram of cross linked chitosan bead can remove
93 grams of Congo red dye at a pH of 6.
 2. Membranes

• Membranes and membrane processes were

initially introduced as an analytical laboratory
tool but have a significant technical and
commercial role these days.
• Today, membranes are used on large scale to
produce potable water from sea and brackish
water, to clean industrial effluents, to recover
valuable constituents , to purify and separate the
gases and vapors in petrochemical industries.
• Chitosan membranes have a relatively low
sorption efficiency than flakes
 Cont.

• Chitosan gel membranes can remove metal

ions by diffusion and the order of permeability
order is as follows;
• Cu< Ni < Zn < Mn < Pb < Co < Cd < Ag
• Cross linked chitosan membranes are more
effective for the removal of copper
 3. Flakes

• Chitosan flakes can be used for the removal of

Cr(IV) from waste water. About 93 % removal
of chromate ions was obtained at a pH of 3.0
and a 30mg/L initial concentration of
chromate ions.
• Chitosan flakes can be modified by the
addition of xanthate group onto the backbone
using CS2 under alkaline conditions. These
modified flakes were used for the removal of
Cd ions from electroplating waste effluent.
 4. Fibers

• Chitosan fibers can be used for the removal of

copper and zinc ions from solution. The
adsorption of copper and zinc ions onto the
fibers not only results in an increase in strength
but the adsorbed ions can be readily removed
from fiber surface by treating with
EDTA(ethyleamine tetra acetic acid) solution.
• Chitosan fibers can also be used for the
recovery of dyes and amino acids.
 5. Hollow Fibers

• Chitosan hollow fibers have been developed for

the simultaneous sorption and desorption of the
target metal.
• Hollow chitosan fibers can be used for the
recovery of chromate anions.
• Fibers are immersed in the chromate solution
while an extractant is flowed through the lumen
of the fiber. Chromate ions are adsorbed onto the
surface of fiber and the extractant flowing through
the lumen continuously extracts these ions.