Biosorption Kinetics of Heavy Metals from Fertilizer Industrial Waste Water Using Groundnut Husk Powder as an Adsorbent

Abstract

Groundnut husk (GH) was used as an adsorbent to remove Mn2+, Zn2+ and Pb2+ ions from fertilizer industrial wastewater. FTIR-spectrum shows the participation of aromatic compounds (C=C), Aldehydes (C=O) and Alkenes (C=C) in adsorption due to their absence in the adsorbent after the process. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to examine the effect of adsorbent mass, pH and contact time on adsorption of Mn2+, Zn2+ and Pb2+ from fertilizer industrial waste water. The results showed that Mn2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ attained maximum percentage removal of 61.62%, 99.93% and 100% at adsorbent dose of 50g, 60g and 20g respectively. However the maximum percentage removal of Mn2+ and Pb2+ was achieved at pH 6 for 80min. while that of Zn2+ was achieved at pH 3 for 60min. Langmuir biosorption isotherm provided the best fit for sorption of Mn2+ and Pb2+ using groundnut husk as indicated by their correlation coefficient ( ) of 0.558 and 0.441 hence the process was based on a physisorption mechanism. The kinetic studies showed that the biosorption process followed the pseudo-second order reaction order. This study has demonstrated that groundnut husk can be efficiently used as low cost alternative adsorbent for remediation of Mn2+, Zn2+ and Pb2+ from heavy metals contaminated wastewater.