Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bab Synthesis and application of Sargassum ilicifolium based biomass for the selective removal of phenol Nabila Al–Rashdi a , N. Rajamohan b, ⁎ , K.P. Ramachandran a a Process Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Caledonian College of Engineering, Muscat, Oman b Chemical Engineering section, Faculty of Engineering, Sohar University, Sohar, Oman ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Marine algae Biosorption Efficiency ABSTRACT Marine algae, Sargassum ilicifolium, found in Oman sea coast for utilized to synthesize a novel adsorbent for the removal of phenol from aqueous solution. The algal bio sorbent was characterized to determine the surface functional groups using FTIR and elemental analysis using EDS techniques. Batch equilibrium experiments were conducted using a phenol concentration of 100 mg/L, optimal pH of 8.0,shaking speed of 100 rpm and biosorbent dose of 4 g/L. The phenol removal experiments were analyzed using equilibrium isotherm models and Langmuir isotherm was found to fit well confirming the monolayer sorption as the mechanism. The uptake capacities increased with increase in temperature and maximum uptake capacity was estimated as 47.393 mg/g at an operating temperature of 40 °C. The Langmuir constant was found to vary in the range of 3.1×10 -3 to 3.44×10 -3 L/mg in the temperature range of 32–40 °C.The equilibrium parameter (R L ) values calculated in this research were found to be between 0.0 and 1.0 indicating favorable adsorption on the selected biomass. Thermodynamic studies were conducted to identify the heat involvement during the sorption process. 1. Introduction Water is becoming a scarce commodity due to excessive utilisation for domestic and industrial purposes and deterioration in the quality of naturally available water has been attributed to industrial pollution. Industrial operations consume water both as a raw material and utility. Water pollution by industries could be caused by the release of organic, inorganic and heavy metal impurities which gain entry into the ecosystem and lead to hazardous effects on the biotic and abiotic components. One important group of pollutants causing greater concern is Phenol and its derivatives. Industries like oil refineries, coke and petrochemical plants, polymer synthesis units, pulp and paper industries and ceramic factories are reported to release phenol as a contaminant. Exposure to phenolic pollutants can cause degeneration of protein, nephrological disorder, liver damage and malfunctioning of central nervous system (Fomina and Gadd, 2014). World Health Organization has recommended the permissible phenol concentration in potable water as 1 μg/L and United States Environmental Protection Agency has advised the concentrations to be maintained less than 1 mg/L for safer waste water discharge (Khare and Kumar, 2012). Removal of phenol from the waste water stream is an inevitable process and requires utmost attention. Various methods employing physical, chemical or biological principles like oxidation, coagulation, precipita- tion, ion exchange, membrane separation and biodegradation have been tried for the removal of phenol. Adsorption is reported as one of the suitable alternatives in terms of better removal efficiency, enhanced selectivity, more specificity, easy regenerability and reduced production of secondary waste. Conventional adsorbents like activated carbon and fly ash has been extensively studied for different pollution control applications. Higher cost, poor cycle time and difficulty in recovering the adsorbent are the demerits reported with the use of activated carbon (Rajamohan et al., 2014). Utilisation of naturally available plant based material has gained importance because of the eco-friendliness and abundant availability. Biosorption is defined as a physico-chemical process which is metabolism independent and useful for the selective removal of substances from liquid medium. It involves the use of dead cells or fragments of cells and enjoys the advantages like ease and safety of handling (Park et al., 2010). Marine algae, a naturally available sea biomass, offer a suitable choice to be utilized as an adsorbent for the removal of pollutants. The suitability of algae is attributed to the surface active functional groups like polysaccharides, carboxyl group of alginates and amino groups (Ma et al., 2013). Research studies on the use of algae biosorption of lead and cadmium (Nessima et al., 2011), copper and nickel (Kleinubing et al., 2011), Lanthanum, Cerium, Europium, and Ytterbium (Vijayaraghavan et al., 2010) and acid (Rajeshkannan et al., 2010) are already reported. In http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bcab.2017.01.006 Received 23 September 2016; Received in revised form 6 January 2017; Accepted 16 January 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rnatarajan@soharuni.edu.om (N. Rajamohan). Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology 9 (2017) 236–239 Available online 16 January 2017 1878-8181/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MARK