High Cu removal from water using water hyacinth fixed on alginate

The occurrence of toxic metals in waters is a major health issue. Polluted waters can be cleaned by biosorption, which uses organisms such as algae, bacteria, fungi and plants that adsorb metals. In particular, water hyacinth—Eichhornia crassipes—is a promising biosorbent. Here we tested novel alginate-immobilised water hyacinth beads for the removal of Cu from aqueous solutions. Results show that successful service and regeneration continuous cycles were performed using a packed-bed, flow-through column of fixed internal diameter 1.2 cm, at room temperature and pH 5.1, with variation in initial metal concentration, bed depth and flow rate. The eluant used was 1 % w/v CaCl₂ acidified at pH 3. A concentration factor of 12 and elution efficiency up to 98 % were observed in five service and regeneration cycles performed. The equilibrium adsorption capacity of Cu remained almost constant at about 29 mg/g. To conclude, we show for the first time that alginate-immobilised water hyacinth beads can uptake and adsorb Cu very efficiently in a continuous-flow mode, hence highlighting their great potential for removal of toxic metals from aquatic environments.