Macroalgae as lead trapping agents in industrial effluents - A factorial design analysis

A two-level factorial design was employed to analyze the influence of agita tion, contact time, amount of algae and type of pretreatment on heavy metal removal by Arribadas algae, in a batch system consisting of a synthetic so lution simulating a typical effluent from battery manufacturing processes. Dried, ground and sieved 4 g algae samples were able to remove 99 % lead fr om 100 mL samples of synthetic effluent. Maximum removals for zinc and iron were 37 % and 80 %, respectively. Lead removal using this method is potent ially useful for large-scale industrial applications, because Arribadas alg ae are cheap, abundant, naturally occurring waste materials.