Confluence of montmorillonite and Rhizobium towards the adsorption of chromium(vi) from aqueous medium

Chromium in its hexavalent oxidation state is carcinogenic and wastewater from the electroplating industry is one of the principal sources of pollution. To reduce this toxicity and pave way towards environmental safety, a combination of environmental microbiology and chemistry is quite efficient for developing biosorbents to sequester chromium from waste water. Immobilization of Rhizobium in sodium montmorillonite provides a conducive environment to capture hexavalent chromium. Various characterization techniques such as FTIR, XPS and SEM-EDAX were performed and batch parameters such as pH variation, adsorbent dosage, concentration of metal ion and temperature were optimized. Pseudo second order kinetics coupled with a higher regression coefficient for Freundlich isotherm and a Langmuir adsorption capacity of 22.22 mg g(−1) was achieved for the adsorption process. The adsorption was enhanced by the charge interactions between the protonated clay-Rhizobium surface and Cr(vi) ions in acidic medium. The biosorbent was stable and easily regenerated using NaOH. Preliminary column studies were performed to test the efficiency of the developed biosorbent at higher volumes on a laboratory scale.