Designing, Modeling and Developing Scale Models for the Treatment of Water Contaminated with Cr (VI) through Bacterial Cellulose Biomass

Abstract

The present research presents a method for scaling up a continuous treatment system with bacterial cellulose biomass for the removal of contaminants on a large industrial scale from effluents loaded with chromium (VI). This consisted of a laboratory-scale modeling process of the chromium (VI) adsorption processes, which would provide the necessary parameters to build a system on an industrial scale. The research also involved designing, modeling and developing scale models for the treatment of water contaminated with chromium (VI) through bacterial cellulose biomass. The results of the model indicated the specific route for the construction of a treatment system on an industrial scale, with the experimental data adjusted to achieve this objective. The pilot scale prototype was built using 450 g of biomass, including elution processes, with the data obtained from the aforementioned processes. In general, the excellent efficiency of the two models at different scales, together with the excellent elution results, suggests that this prototype could be presented to polluting industries for the treatment of water from different industrial effluents, being an advanced biotechnology for the treatment of industrial wastewater.