Evaluation of Absorption Process for Heavy Metals Removal found in Pharmaceutical Wastewater

Abstract

This study focused on the adsorption/absorption process of natural volcanic tuff, its application, kinetics, efficiency, velocity and selectivity order in removing heavy metals found in pharmaceutical wastewater.Series of experiments were conducted in batch-wise and fixed-bed columns to study the removal performance and selectivity sequence of mixed metal ions (Pb ) in aqueous solution using natural volcanic tuff material as adsorbent. The main purpose of this study is to highlight the economical application of the method in treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater.Heavy metal salts were used to prepare synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater containing a mixture of different metal ions concentrations ranged from 1 to 20 mg/L were to be applied to columns packed with natural volcanic tuff rich in zeolite ranged between (0.50-3.50 mm ) in grain size. Photometric procedure was used for sample analysis. The absorption experiments were carried out under changing conditions, different pH-values (2, 4, 6 and 7), initial solute concentrations (1, 5 and 10) mg/L, different temperatures (10, 20 and 30°C) and varying tuff particle sizes (0.50-3.50) mm.The results showed that Freundlich model described satisfactorily sorption of Cu 2+ and Fe 2+. Used volcanic tuff exhibit efficiency in removing heavy metals ranging from 45-99% of the added Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb and Fe metal concentrations, respectively. According to the percentage sorption and distribution coefficients values, the selectivity sequence of studied metals by volcanic tuff is strongly dependent of pH, however approximating all results a selectivity sequence can be given as Pb ≥ Fe>Cr>Zn>Cu at pH around 2 and a selectivity sequence as Fe>Cu>Cr>Zn>Pb at pH=6-7. The result confirms that natural volcanic tuff hold great potential to remove cationic heavy metal species from industrial wastewater. of heavy metals, much attention has been paid for occurrence, concentrations, movement, fate and the anticipated health and environmental risks that may arise from these heavy metals since they have direct exposure to humans and other organisms [8,9]. The demand for pharmaceuticals has resulted in a consequent increase in pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in the world and hence increased pharmaceutical waste which most times contain substantial amount of heavy metals. Pharmaceutical residues in the environment, and their potential toxic effects, have been recognized as one of the emerging research area in the environmental chemistry [10,11]. Pharmaceutical effluents are usually discharged into the environment and when improperly handled and disposed, they affect both human health and the environment [12,13]. KeywordsThe presence of pharmaceutical compounds in waters comes from two different sources: production processes of the pharmaceutical industry and common use of pharmaceutical compounds resulting in their presence in urban wastewaters [14][15][16][17]. The pharmaceutical wastewaters generated in different processes in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and drugs cont...

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