Removal of Copper (II) from Mining Waste Water by Adsorption onto Activated Carbons Produced from Hazelnut Shell

Abstract

Mining wastewater is one of the most important environmental problems today because of the heavy metal ions they contain. Wastewaters containing heavy metal pollution are generally acidic waters with low BOI (Biochemical oxygen demand) value. Various processes such as mineral processing waste disposal, illegal mining, domestic waste disposal, and others result in the release of heavy metals into the waters. One of the heavy metals that cause problems in terms of environmental pollution is copper. Copper metal is commonly found in metal and metal plating industry wastewater. Although metal industry wastewater is low in quantity, they are toxic waste. For this reason, industrial wastewater must be treated before being discharged into the receiving environment. In this study, the amount of Cu in wastewater of the mining operation in Gümüşhane was determined. Heavy metal pollution was eliminated with an adsorbent produced from agricultural biowaste. It has been tried to determine the amount of adsorbent, contact time, and treatment efficiency of wastewater at different pHs of activated carbon produced by chemical activation. As a result, an average of 88.7% efficiency was obtained with activated carbon activated with KOH, while 22,4% copper removal efficiencies were obtained with raw material (hazelnut shell) used without activation. It was determined that the appropriate working pH was 5,0; the amount of adsorbent was 0.05 g and Qmax 121,2. As a result, in this study, very low-cost adsorbents were produced using waste hazelnut shells, and a biotechnological approach was proposed to clean copper-containing wastewater.