Abstract

Sustainable wastewater treatment is one of the biggest issues of the 21st century. Metals such as Zn2+ have been released into the environment due to rapid industrial development. In this study, dried watermelon rind (D-WMR) is used as a low-cost adsorption material to assess natural adsorbents’ ability to remove Zn2+ from synthetic wastewater. D-WMR was characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). According to the results of the analysis, the D-WMR has two colours, white and black, and a significant concentration of mesoporous silica (83.70%). Moreover, after three hours of contact time in a synthetic solution with 400 mg/L Zn2+ concentration at pH 8 and 30 to 40 °C, the highest adsorption capacity of Zn2+ onto 1.5 g D-WMR adsorbent dose with 150 μm particle size was 25 mg/g. The experimental equilibrium data of Zn2+ onto D-WMR was utilized to compare nonlinear and linear isotherm and kinetics models for parameter determination. The best models for fitting equilibrium data were nonlinear Langmuir and pseudo-second models with lower error functions. Consequently, the potential use of D-WMR as a natural adsorbent for Zn2+ removal was highlighted, and error analysis indicated that nonlinear models best explain the adsorption data.

Highlights

  • Wastewater treatment is one of the most important topics of scientific study, covering a wide range of disciplines

  • The current study found that under optimal conditions, dried watermelon rind powder has a good capacity to extract Zn2+ ions from synthetic solution

  • The dried watermelon rind (D-WMR) was further examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), with the findings confirming the removal of Zn2+ from synthetic wastewater

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Summary

Introduction

Wastewater treatment is one of the most important topics of scientific study, covering a wide range of disciplines. Too much Zn2+ may lead to a series of health issues, including stomach pains, skin irritations, nausea and anaemia [4] Almost all of these municipal and industrial effluents are dumped directly into bodies of water without adequate treatment, and as a result, they become severely contaminated [5,6]. Aquatic life is threatened by even a relatively tiny concentration of heavy metals in water systems [7,8,9]. This means that in order for the water ecosystem to thrive, heavy metals such as Zn2+ must be removed and reduced from wastewater

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