Kinetics Studies on the Process of Zn Removal from Wastewater Using Ultrasonically Activated Sorbents

Abstract

Heavy metals pollution in industrial wastewater is a great environmental challenge. Several techniques and materials have been recently proposed in order to overcome this problem, such as the adsorption process; however, in order to be competitive, new improved low-cost materials must be proposed or developed. In the present work, the remediation of Zn-contaminated water using fly ash and Tonsil was studied. Both materials are considered low-cost sorbents since they are a byproduct of an industrial process, or locally abundant in nature. To increase the Zn uptake, the materials were activated by applying ultrasonic energy. It was found that the pH is an important parameter to be controlled since the larger sorption capacity occurred at pH = 4. Also, the materials activated with ultrasound were able to adsorb greater Zn quantities at the studied experimental conditions. Finally, the kinetics of the adsorption process was analyzed, and several mathematical models were proposed to simulate the experimental data. After making some statistical discrimination, the Lagergren model was selected to represent the sorption of Zn on the different materials studied.

Treated oil shale ash and its capacity to remove Cd and Pb from aqueous solutions

“…The empirical proposed model of the two-parameter Langmuir isotherm for gas-solid physical interaction is employed for different adsorbents [4][5][6]28]. The proposed model isotherm that can be written in its linear form which is amenable to linear kinetics analysis is:…”

“…Cadmium is extremely toxic and is classified as carcinogenic, impacting lungs, liver and kidney [1]. Researchers have developed methods to treat wastewater-containing heavy metal ions such as ion exchange [2], oil shale fly ash [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] membrane [10], coagulation [11], chemical precipitation [12], adsorption [13], including biosorption, that can remove heavy metals from very dilute aqueous contaminated solutions [14,15].…”

A Review on Abatement of Nickel(II) from Aqueous Solution by Agricultural Biomass

“…Removal of toxic metal ions is necessary when the heavy metal ions level exceeds the permissible discharge level in industrial effluents. Many techniques and materials are used to remove contaminants and eliminate or reduce the hazardous nature of industrial wastewater, including chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, reverse osmosis, membrane processes, solvent extraction, evaporation, biosorption, etc [5]. However, the method that has been described by numerous researchers to be highly selective, efficient, easy to operate and cost effective is adsorption.…”