title: Performance of dead Azolla filiculoides biomass in Biosorption of Au from wastewater.
abstract: Dried milled biomass of Azolla filiculoides removed up to 98.2% of gold from wastewater from a gold plating factory containing 5 mg gold/l in solution in batch biosorption. The gold uptake capacity of the biomass was 98 mg/g. Whole dried biomass used in a continuous flow column removed up to 100% of gold from diluted wastewater. A similar column was linked to a sulphide precipitation process to provide a two-step system which was able to remove 98% of gold from undiluted wastewater containing 41 mg Au/l. The lifetime of the column was five days.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology, Rhodes University, 6140, Grahamstown, South Africa.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Umali
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Burgess
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018533:Biomass; D029624:Ferns; D006046:Gold / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007220:Industrial Waste; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D006046:Gold