Assessment Of Heavy Metal Removal From Aqueous Solutions Using Biomaterials

Abstract

The paper evaluates two different food wastes for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater. This paper compares the current methods to explore the utilization techniques for various food wastes such as prawn and egg shells as bio adsorbents which are abundantly and easily available in India for the elimination of heavy metals from wastewater. In this study, the adsorption behaviour of two adsorbents such as Prawn and Egg shell with respect to Cu(II) and Zn(II) ions, has been studied in order to consider its application to the purification of metal finishing wastewater. The batch method was employed and the parameters such as pH, contact time, and initial metal concentration were studied. The influence of the pH of the metal ion solutions on the uptake levels of the metal ions by the different adsorbents used were carried out between pH 4 and pH 11. Adsorption parameters were determined using both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, but the experimental data were better fitted to the Freundlich equation than to Langmuir equation. The results showed that Prawn and Egg shells  hold potential to remove cationic heavy metal species from industrial wastewater in the order Prawn shell < Egg shell.