Biosorption of Species in Multi-Component Systems

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Biosorption is a process which utilizes inexpensive non-living biomaterials such as microorganism biomass, agricultural by-products, and food wastes to sequester chemical species of interest. The ultimate goal of the proposed biosorption research program is to develop innovative technologies to formulate biomaterial based adsorbents and establish adsorption processes with high efficiency and low costs for environmental, energy, chemical, pharmaceutical, and biomedical applications. Specifically for the next five years, one goal is to develop a methodology to formulate and characterize novel biosorbent pellets with enhanced qualities in terms of biosorbent shape, size, uptake capacity, stability and selectivity. Biomaterial sources will include flax shives, canola hay, and other cost-effective biomaterials generated by agricultural industry in Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada. Another goal is to optimize a biosorption process with the novel biosorbent pellets for heavy metals such as chromium and lead containing wastewater treatment. The third goal is to formulate novel biosorbents with enhanced performance for dehydration of fuel alcohols, and natural gas, respectively, in a pressure swing adsorption process. This research will yield three major results: applications of biosorption technology in treatment of heavy metal containing wastewater, and drying fuel alcohols and natural gas, a state-of-the-art training environment for highly qualified personnel and opportunities for new discoveries in biotechnology. Commercialization of waste biomaterials for the regards would increase the revenue of the biomaterial-producing industries. On the other hand, the technologies generated from this research will reduce the costs of wastewater treatment, and processing of the fuel alcohols and gases, which will enhance the profitability of such Canadian industries and benefit the environment of Canada.