Bioadsorption of suspended and dissolved particles from coal washery effluent onto fluted pumpkin seed shell biomass

Abstract

Fluted pumpkin seed shell, an abundant and inexpensive natural resource in Nigeria, was used as a precursor to adsorbent production for the removal of suspended and dissolved particle (SDP) from initially coagulated coal washery effluent (CWE). Key parameters such as contact time, adsorbent dose, pH and temperature were investigated using batch mode. The adsorption equilibrium, thermodynamics and kinetics of SDP on H3PO4 treated shell (FPA) and NH4Cl treated shell (FPS) were examined at specified temperatures. Equilibrium data sufficiently fit the Langmuir isotherm model (R2 > 0.99; SSE < 0.09). The pseudo-second order kinetic model provides the best correlation (R2>0.99;SSE<0.1) with the experimental data. The evaluated ΔG○ and ΔH○ indicate the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the process. This study demonstrates that pumpkin seed shell could be utilized as low cost, renewable, ecofriendly bioadsorbent for the removal of SDP from CWE.

Adsorptive treatment of brewery effluent using activated Chrysophyllum albidium seed shell carbon

“…Over the years, significant attention has been given to the environmental cleanup of such contaminated aqua system using varieties of techniques such as precipitation, ion-exchange, coagulation, reverse osmosis and adsorption (Hameed and El-Khaiary 2008 ; Larous et al 2005 ; Menkiti et al 2011b ; Menkiti and Onukwuli 2011b ). Among the different treatments listed above, adsorption technology is attractive due to its merits of efficiency,even at low concentration of contaminants (Meena et al 2008 ; Yakubu et al 2008 ), economy, simple operation and insensitivity to toxic substances (Grini 2005 ; Feng et al 2010 ; Menkiti and Onukwuli 2011b ).…”