Cobalt removal from wastewater using pine sawdust

Abstract

Agricultural wastes can cause environmental problems if not well managed, but there is a lot of potential to use these wastes as raw material in other processes. In this investigation, pine sawdust was evaluated as an adsorbent in the treatment of wastewater containing cobalt ions. A two-level threefactor full-factorial experimental design with centre points was used to study the interactive effect of the operating parameters in order to achieve the best conditions for the batch adsorption of cobalt ions. A response surface analysis was also conducted to further understand the interactions amongst the factors such as adsorbent dose, solution pH and initial concentration. In addition, adsorption isotherms, namely the Freundlich and Langmuir, were used to characterize the removal of cobalt from the wastewater. It was observed that the combined effect of low adsorbent dose, high pH and high initial concentration of wastewater resulted in the highest adsorption capacity. The Freundlich isotherm provided a better fit to the experimental data than the Langmuir isotherm. Moreover, pine sawdust showed adsorption capabilities for cobalt, and hence it could be an option in the quest to use waste to treat wastewater.

Magnetic Steel Slag Biochar for Ammonium Nitrogen Removal from Aqueous Solution

“…These measurements confirmed the presence of BOF slag powder on the surface of MSSB (Figure 3a). The base morphology of MSSB showed porous linked-fibrous shape, which is similar to the morphology of pine sawdust [33]. The EDS spectra showed that MSSB includes Fe, Ca, Al, Mg, Mn, C, and O (Figure 3c); most of the ions (Fe, Ca, Al, Mg, and Mn) in MSSB seemed to derive from BOF slag powder components, and most C ions seemed to derive from pine sawdust.…”

“…Rice hull Fe(C5H7O2)3 11.6-14.3 [20] Red cedar (Thuja plicata) FeCl3•6H2O/FeSO4•7H2O 10-25 [33] Spent coffee ground FeCl3 3.89-8.08 [34] Long-thorn kiawe (Prosopis juliflora) Ni(NO3)2 0.087 [35] Pine tree sawdust BOF slag 2.3 This study…”