Levent Gurel, Ilknur senturk, Tolga Bahadir and Hanife Buyukgungor
The removal of Ni (II) from industrial wastewater was examined by pure rice bran, free Rhizopus arrhizus and immobilized R.arrhizus onto rice bran, and results were compared with each other. Nickel plating industry was imitated in this study and, as a model, synthetic wastewater was used containing approximately 100 mg Ni+2/L. When the pH value was adjusted to 7.0 in the treatment studies made by using free Rhizopus arrhizus, the value of qeq was found as 37.8 g/g. In the experiment conducted by pure rice bran, at a pH value of 5.0, the parameter qeq was determined as 3.18 mg/g. For enhancing the treatment efficiency and observing the immobilizing characteristics of this fungus, Rhizopus arrhizus was immobilized onto rice bran. The qeq values were obtained as 4.23 mg/g at a pH value of 5.0, and the removal was made a maximum at 90 minutes with a qeq value of 6.83 mg/g.