Adsorption of Heavy Metals using Banana Peels in Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Heavymetal contaminants are present in wastewater from many industries such as metalmanufacturing, dye and paint, chemicals and fertilizer. Heavy metal removal hasbecome the main priority for the environmental concern due to the toxic. Bananapeels are a low-cost agriculture waste which could be used for the adsorptionof heavy metals in wastewater. Hence, this study focused on the adsorptioncapabilities of dried banana peels powder under various conditions such as theeffect of agitation speed, temperature and contact time for efficientadsorption rate by using agricultural waste adsorbents which is banana peel(treated by acid and alkali). Although banana is one of the most importantcommercial crops in the world, most of the edible parts are consumed for itsnutrients purpose only rather than using adsorption properties. In that case,the banana peels are used in adsorption of heavy metals where it extract outthe Cu and Pb from the waste water from the industries. The findings of thisstudy will contribute to bridging up the gap in knowledge on the potential ofusing banana peels for promoting in the adsorption process and minimize theeffect on the living things caused by the waste water released by the heavyindustries.The results from the optimized method revealed theapplicability of the method to environmental water samples. This studytherefore confirms that banana peel is a promising adsorbent for the removal ofheavy metals from industrial effluent.