Nonlinear Isotherm Reassessment of Malathion Biosorption by Dried Bacillus sp. S14 Biomass
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54987/jebat.v8i2.1188Keywords:
Adsorption equilibrium, Bacterial biomass, Biosorption, Malathion, Sips modelAbstract
Malathion residues presence in water remains of concern as the parent insecticide and its transformation products ca n be toxic to non-target organisms. The present study reanalyzed published equilibrium data of sorption of malathion by the dried bacterium Bacillus sp. S14 biomass using nonlinear regression instead of linearized regression to avoid distortions in errors in data structure. Eight models (Henry, Langmuir, Freundlich, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Toth, Sips, Fritz–Schlunder IV and Fritz–Schlunder V) were evaluated. Statistical selection of the best model was carried out using root mean square error (RMSE), adjusted R², corrected Akaike information criterion (AICc), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), Hannan–Quinn criterion (HQC), bias factor and accuracy factor. The four-parameter Fritz-Schlunder model had the lowest RMSE (0.0363) and the highest adjusted R2 (0.9984) and bias and accuracy factors close to unity (1.007 and 1.016). However, the three-parameter Sips model had the lowest AICc (−24.46) and gave an interpretable saturation capacity of 2.640 mg g⁻¹ (95% CI 2.503–2.777) with Kₛ=0.114 L mg⁻¹ (95% CI 0.071–0.158) and nₛ=0.351 (95% CI 0.286–0.417). Thus, no single model was the best for all criteria, with the Fritz–Schlunder IV model minimizing residual error and the AICc favoring the more parsimonious Sips equation. The wide confidence intervals and unstable capacity estimates for the higher-parameter models suggest overparameterization in this small, digitized dataset. The reanalysis is consistent with heterogeneous, saturable binding, but does not itself establish a molecular mechanism, and more independent experiments with replicate measurements are required for mechanistic evaluation.
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