REMOVAL OF Cu(II) IONS FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER BY CHEMICALLY MODIFIED NATURAL PLANT WASTES

Abstract

In this study, the usability of natural wastes as lowcost adsorbents for the removal of Cu (II) ions from industrial waste water hasbeen investigated. The adsorption capacities of different natural wastes suchas banana, lemon and orange peel, tea waste and sawdust of walnut wereevaluated by a series of batch sorption tests. The grinded materials wereclassified with respect to particle size within the range of 1~2 and 0.5~1 mm.And also, the prepared adsorbents were classified as untreated, treated withacid (0.6 M of C2H2O4) and treated with base(0.1 M of NaOH). The adsorption performances of prepared adsorbents for thesorption of Cu(II) ions were investigated by a series of batch sorptionexperiments. The effect of adsorbent type, modification method and adsorbentsize on Cu(II) ion sorption capacities (Qe) of the preparedadsorbents have been investigated. According to the results obtained, it hasbeen observed that the modification with basic solution, enhanced the sorptionperformance of the adsorbents and exhibited the highest removal percentage upto 95% with the sorption capacity (Qe) of 5 mg/g-adsorbent for bothparticle sizes of the base-modified sawdust of walnut. The equilibriumbehaviour of Cu(II) sorption of base-modified sawdust of walnut was welldefined by Freundlich Isotherms.