Biosorption of Astrazone Blue basic dye from an aqueous solution using dried biomass of Baker's yeast

In this study dried biomass of Baker's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is used as a sorbent for Astrazone Blue basic dye aqueous solution. Factors affecting the adsorption process: dye concentration, contact time, temperature and pH were investigated. The equilibrium concentration and the adsorption capacity at equilibrium were determined using three different sorption models namely: Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherms. It was found that increasing temperature and pH result in higher dye loadings per unit weight of the sorbent. The results gained from this study were described by Langmuir isotherm model better than Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models. The calculated heat of adsorption of the dye–yeast system indicates that the bio-sorption process is taking place by chemical adsorption and has an endothermic nature. The maximum adsorption capacity at 30 °C and pH 7 was calculated as 70 mg/g for dried biomass of Baker's yeast compared to 18.5 mg/g for commercial granular activated carbon, indicating that dried biomass of Baker's yeast can be considered as a good sorbent material for Astrazone Blue solution.