Adsorption of Heavy Metals Using Mixture of Waste Products

Abstract

A new adsorbent for removing lead, nickel, chromium and arsenic ions from industrial wastewaters has been investigated. This new adsorbent consists of four waste products tea waste, rice husk, sugarcane bagasse and peanut shell. The adsorbent was prepared without any physical and chemical treatment. Batch experiments were conducted to assess the removal of selected metal ions from wastewaters. The results have shown that the mixture of four waste products presented an excellent adsorption of heavy metal ions. The equilibrium time was dependent on type of adsorbent and sample. The highest percentage of metal ion removal was 100 %. The results showed pseudo second order kinetics. The surface chemical nature of prepared adsorbent was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The functional group present in adsorbent has affinity towards heavy metal ions to form metal complexes. The surface morphology of prepared adsorbent was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and chemical composition was analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.