Linear and nonlinear regression methods for equilibrium modelling of p-nitrophenol biosorption by Rhizopus oryzae: Comparison of error analysis criteria

The study assessed the applicability of rhizopus oryzae dead fungi as a biosorbent medium for p-nitrophenol (p-np) removal from aqueous phase. the extent of biosorption was measured through five equilibrium sorption isotherms represented by the langmuir,freundlich,redlich-peterson,multilayer and fritz-schlunder models. linear and nonlinear regression methods were compared to determine the best-fitting equilibrium model to the experimental data. a detailed error analysis was undertaken to investigate the effect of applying seven error criteria for the determination of the single-component isotherm parameters. according to the comparison of the error functions and to the estimation of the corrected akaike information criterion (ai c c),the freundlich equation was ranked as the first and the fritz-schlunder as the second best-fitting models describing the experimental data. the present investigations proved the high efficiency (94) of rhizopus oryzae as an alternative adsorbent for p-np removal from aqueous phase and revealed the mechanism of the separation process. © 2013 zvezdelina lyubenova yaneva et al.