For you to know: Banana Trunk Fiber (Musa sapientum) as efficient Biosorbent for the removal of Mercury from Aqueous solution. (Title)

Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education

Caraga Administrative Region

Division at Agusan Del Sur

Trento Agusan Del Sur

Banana Trunk Fiber (Musa sapientum) as efficient Biosorbent for the removal of Mercury from Aqueous solution.

(Title)

Partial fulfillment is Research/Biotechnology III

Submitted to: Jerico Catipay

Research adviser

Researcher:

Rocky Jhno Nalua

Rhea Mea Lazo

Novelyn Garin

Research Plan

Banana Trunk Fiber (Musa sapientum) as efficient Biosorbent for the removal of Mercury from Aqueous solution.

Specifically, it will answer the following questions:

MAIN PROBLEM

· The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of modified Banana Trunk Fiber to remove Mercury from aqueous solution.

SUB PROBLEM

· Are there any physical characteristics of modified BTF that can be applied to remove Mercury from Aqueous solution?

· Is there any minimum and maximum biosorbent performance of BTF in removing Mercury?

· What Ph level is favorable to remove Mercury from aqueous solutionby banana trunk fiber?

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

B1. General Objective

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of modified BTF to remove Mercury from Aqueous solution.

B2. Specific Objective

Aim to the following specifically.

Determine the physical characteristics of modified BTF that can be applied to remove Mercury from Aqueous solution.
Determine any minimum and maximum biosorbent performance of modified BTF in removing Mercury.
Determine the Ph level is favorable to remove Mercury from aqueous solution by banana trunk fiber.

B3. Hypothesis

There are no any physical characteristics of modified BTF that can be applied to remove Mercury from Aqueous solution.
There is no any minimum and maximum biosorbent performance of modified BTF in removing Mercury.
The Ph level is not favorable to remove Mercury from aqueous solution by banana trunk fiber.

INTODUCTION

Industrialization has enhanced the degradation of our environment through the discharge of wastewaters. This hasoresulted in significant amounts of heavy metal ion such as Mercury being deposited into our ecosystems. These metals are not biodegradable and known to cause severe dysfunction of the kidney, reproductive system, liver, brain and central nervous system. Several methods for removing heavy metal ions such as chemical precipitation, electrodeposition, ion exchange, reverse osmosis and adsorption have been used to treat wastewater. Of these methods, chemical precipitation is the most economic but is inefficient for dilute solution. Electrodepostion, ion exchange and reverse osmosis are generally effective, but have rather high maintenance and operation costs and subjectto fouling. Biosorption, a process that utilizes biomassfor the decontamination of metal-containing effluents is a promising alternative. Low-cost natural sorbents such as cork and yohimbe bark, spent grain, peanut hull pellets, rice milling by-products⁷, grape stalk waste⁸, pectin rich fruit wastes and biowaste from fruit juice industry¹.

Banana plants are of the family Musacease and cultivated primarily fortheir fruit. As such, after harvesting the fruit, the matured pseudostems are generally disposed at a landfill or left to decompose slowly in a plantation field. The composition of a typical BTF obtained by elemental analysis, as determined by Bilba et al,¹¹ is as follows: Cellulose (31.27 ± 3.61 %), Hemicellulose (14.98 ±2.03%), Lignin (15.07 ± 0.66 %), Extractives (4.46 ± 0.11 %), (Moisture 9.74 ± 1.42 %) and Ashes (8.65 ± 0.10 %).

The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficiency of the removal of Cd(II), Cu(II), Fe(II) and Zn(II) from aqueous solutions by unmodified BTF. The effect of various operating parameters such as pH, contact time, metal ions concentration, adsorbent dose and change in [M²⁺]/biomass was studied. The adsorption isotherm study was also carried out on two isotherm models, namely Langmuir and Freundlich. The adsorption capacity were determined and compared by first and second order kinetic models.

Definitions:

The following words or phrases are commonly used when discussing the research:

Heavy Metals - Metals, when in significant concentrations in water, that

may pose detrimental health effects. Heavy metals include lead,

silver, mercury, copper, nickel, chromium, zinc, cadmium and tin

that must be removed to certain levels to meet discharge

requirements.

mg/L - Milligrams per liter, a representation of the quantity of

material present in a solution. Same value as ppm

Agrowaste- Animal waste, Food processing waste, Hazardous and Toxic Waste, Crop waste

Biosorption- (chemistry) The removal of metal ions or organic compounds from solution by microorganisms. ... The goal of biosorption may be the removal of heavy metals from industrial waste water, the purification of precious metals such as gold or silver, or the removal of pollutants from soil and water.

Isotherm- a type of contour line that connects points of equal temperature at a given date or time on a geographic mapStearic Acids- Stearic acid is the common name for octadecanoic acid, which is a saturated fatty acid with the chemical formula of C₁₈H₃₆O_2. It is used as a lubricant, a hardener, and an emulsifier, a chemical that allows oils and water to mix.

Calcium Carbonate-Calcium carbonate is an important chemical compound. It consists of one atom of calciumbonded to one atom of carbon and three atoms of oxygen. The molecular formula of calciumcarbonate is CaCO_3. It is the most common reagent used in flue-gas desulfurization applications, removing harmful SO₂ emissions from coal and other fossil fuel exhausts. It is also used to de-acidify lakes and neutralize acidic water runoff from mines.

Background of the study

Mercury pollution is one of the problems of the world. The cause of this problem is the existing of mining operation in the Philippines. One of the biggest mining operations in the Philippines is located in Diwalwal, one of the Barangays in the municipality of Monkayo, in Compostela Valley and the things we are worrying about is the existence of mercury in Agusan Marsh.

Mercury pollution can be a serious health threat, especially for children and pregnant women. Mercury pollution released into the environment becomes a serious threat when it settles into oceans and waterways, where it builds up in fish that we eat. Children and women of childbearing age are most at risk.

The search for new technologies involving the removal of toxic metals from wastewaters has directed attention to biosorption, based on metal binding capacities of various biological materials. Biosorption is being demonstrated as a useful alternative to conventional systems for the removal of toxic metals from industrial effluents. The development of the biosorption processes requires further investigation in the direction of modeling, of regeneration of biosorbent material and of testing immobilized raw biomasses with industrial effluents.

Banana plants are of the family Musacease and cultivated primarily fortheir fruit. As such, after harvesting the fruit, the matured pseudostems are generally disposed at a landfill or left to decompose slowly in plantation field. The banana pseudostem fibers, an agro-waste are an efficient biosorbent in the removal of Mercury from aqueous solutions at pH 5. The kinetics of sorption of the four metal ions on BTF follows a pseudo-second-order pattern and renewal. Moreover, sorption capacity is strongly dependent on the metal concentration and pH of solution. Banana trunk fibers are very cheap, easily available. This study revealed that this biosorbent could be used as a tool for the development of low-cost biomaterial-for the treatment of heavy metal waste. It is also worthwhile to note that by introducing new chemical sites on the biomass may not necessary aid in the adsorption capacity of BTF.

Significance of the study

This study is a great help and will benefit the following

· HEALTH- Humans risk ingesting dangerous levels of mercury when they eat contaminated fish. Since mercury is odorless, invisible and accumulates in the meat of the fish, it is not easy to detect and can't be avoided by trimming off the skin or other parts. Mercury affects every part of the body and can cause long-lasting damage to your heart, brain, and nervous, reproductive and immune systems. The Unmodified BTF can help us to remove mercury from contaminated water and through this we can prevent or avoid risk.

· LOW COST AND HIGH EFFICIENCY BIOSORBENT- Banana plants are of the family Musacease and cultivated primarily for their fruit. As such, after harvesting the fruit, the matured pseudostems are generally disposed at a landfill or left to decompose slowly in a plantation field. Instead of decomposing it we would use it as a low cost and efficient biosorbent.

· MINIMISATION OF CHEMICAL AND LOR BIOLOGICAL SLUDGE- The search for new technologies involving the removal of toxic metals from wastewaters has directed attention to biosorption, based on metal binding capacities of various biological materials. Biosorption can be defined as the ability of biological materials to accumulate heavy metals from wastewater through metabolically mediated or physico-chemical pathways of uptake (Fourest and Roux, 1992). Metal affinity to the biomass can be manipulated by pretreating the biomass with alkalies, acids, detergents and heat, which may increase the amount of the metal sorbed biosorption is being demonstrated as a useful alternative to conventional systems for the removal of toxic metals from industrial effluents.

C. Methods and Procedures

C.1 Experimental flow

The following methods will be followed in the entire duration of the study. Banana Trunk Fiber Preparation,

C.1.1 Banana Trunk Fiber Preparation

The banana trunk will be collected in Nalua farm located in Isdaon Trento Agusan del Sur. The pseudostems were chopped into cubes of average size of 2 cm x 2 cm. The cubes were submerged in boiling water for 1 hr (to soften and kill microorganism) and then dried in an oven at 70 °C until a constant weight was obtained. The resulting material was ground using a Warring Commercials high speed blender and sieved to isolate fibers of the size 212 - 350 micron. (The native metal content the BTF were observed by using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) machine Model Leica Cambridge AS-360 at an accelerating voltage 15kV).It will be added Calcium carbonate and strearic acid and blend process regain to obtain softer fibers about 5-15 minutes. The mixture is boiled to make it fully concentrated.

Experimental Chart