No abstract

The removal of heavy metal pollutants from industrial wastewater is important to ensure the safety of the environment and humans. In this study, rhamnolipids from Pseudomonas aeruginosa were used to treat synthetic wastewater containing Cu ions (100 mg L -1 ) by foam separation. A high removal efficiency of 99.52 % was achieved when the somatic cells of inactivated P. aeruginosa were used as biosorbents. The analysis of the adsorption kinetics showed that dynamic biosorption followed the Langmuir isotherm model and that the bacterial cells had a strong adsorption effect on Cu ions. The novel technology based on the combination of foam separation and biosorption serves as an effective approach for the removal of Cu ions from industrial wastewater.