Utilizing Agricultural-based Adsorbents to Remove Copper and Nickel from Industrial Wastewater

Abstract

Due to rapid industrialization, industrial wastewater quantity and heavy metals are increasing day by day and thereby new alternative methods for treatment of water and waste water are need of hour. Heavy metals can be removed from wastewater more effectively through adsorption, however this method requires a good adsorbent that is widely accessible nearby. The heavy metals copper and nickel are removed from industrial effluent using adsorbents made from agricultural waste in this research work. Adsorbents prepared from coconut shell and rice husk, which are considered as waste materials, can be effectively used for adsorption due to low cost and high availability. Chemical and thermal treatments are given to develop the effective adsorbents from coconut shell and rice husk. Potential of removal of heavy metals by agro-based adsorbents are also evaluated by various tests like XRD, XRF, proximate analysis, bulk density, iodine number. In characterization, behaviors of material are studied and developed adsorbents are found effective with good adsorption capacity for the removal of heavy metals. In this work, industrial wastewater with pH variations and treated. Adsorbent from coconut shell are 70% effective in removal of nickel and adsorbents from rice husk are 65% effective. Copper removal is 75-76% which is more than nickel by both the adsorbents. Both adsorbents bring down the metal ion concentrations in the industrial wastewater below permissible limits 3 mg/l. For the effective and inexpensive removal of various heavy metals, a variety of agro-based adsorbents made from locally abundant waste are helpful.