Bioadsorption potency of Albizia ferruginea in the removal of fluoride from contaminated water

Abstract

Due to the high toxicity of fluoride to humanity, it is imperative to treat fluoride-contaminatked water for human consumption. The most commonly used method for the defluoridation of water is bio-adsorption. The present study has investigated the ability of Albizia ferruginea to remove fluoride from water through adsorption. This experiment was undertaken in batch mode. The adsorption process was systematically studied regarding the influence of pH, interaction time, temperature, adsorbent loading, fluoride ion concentration and the effect of coexisting anions to understand the ideal conditions for the adsorption. The effect of different parameters viz. contact time (30-150 min), initial concentration (4-20 mg/L), adsorbent dose (50-250 g/L), mixing speed (30-150 rpm), temperature (25-450 C) has been investigated to determine the adsorption capacity of Albizia ferruginea. The data were analyzed by applying the Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption kinetics was studied from the data obtained through pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order equations. Various adsorption isotherms, such as the Langmuir isotherm model, were studied to determine adsorption capacity. The adsorption data best fitted for Langmuir isotherm and the process obeyed both pseudo-first and second order. The effectiveness of the best adsorbent was evaluated by removing fluoride contamination rapidly from wastewater. So, from the above study, it was revealed that Albizia ferruginea could be used as an efficient adsorbent for removing fluoride ions.