Investigation of biosorption behavior of methylene blue on Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.) P. Kumm.

The effect of varying parameters such as dye concentration, adsorbent dose, pH and temperature on the adsorption capacity of Pleurotus ostreatus is investigated. The commonly available white rot fungus Pleurotus ostreatus is investigated as a viable biomaterial for the biological treatment of synthetic basic methylene blue effluents. The results obtained from the batch experiments reveal the ability of the fungus to remove methylene blue. The performance is dependent on the dye concentration, pH, and fungal biomass. The equilibrium and kinetics of adsorption are investigated and the Langmuir equation is used to fit the equilibrium isotherm. The adsorption isotherm of methylene blue follows only the Langmuir model with a correlation coefficient of ca. 0.96-0.99. The maximum adsorption capacity is ca. 70 mg of dye per g of dry fungus at pH 11, 70 mg L-1 dye, and 0.1 g L-1 fungus concentration, respectively. This study demonstrates that the fungus could be used as an effective biosorbent for the treatment of dye-containing wastewater streams.