Abstract

This paper deals with the experimental investigation of the removal of the toxic Cr(VI) ions using a low-cost waste biomaterials Psidium guajava leaves as the adsorbent in continuous column mode. The influence of process parameters like bed depth, the rate of flow, and influent concentration on the removal was investigated to determine the adsorption characteristics by this adsorbent. The capacity of the adsorbent for metal uptake was decreased with the increase in bed depth from 4.07 to 2.89 mg g−1, but it was increased with the rise in flow rate from 2.94 to 8.72 mg g−1. The data obtained from the experiment were fitted good with Thomas model. The major functional groups were identified from the FTIR study which was responsible for the adsorption. The guava leaves are suitable for Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solution.

Highlights

  • The environmentalists are very much concern for the heavy metal ions which are present in the water stream which throws a serious threat to human health and the environment as they are not biodegradable and toxic (Sousa et al 2010; Long et al 2014)

  • The most important environmental issue for recent time is the remotion of the toxic heavy metals from the wastewater (Mondal 2009)

  • The metals having the atomic density greater than 4 g cm−3 are termed as heavy metals

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Summary

Introduction

The environmentalists are very much concern for the heavy metal ions which are present in the water stream which throws a serious threat to human health and the environment as they are not biodegradable and toxic (Sousa et al 2010; Long et al 2014). Conventional methods, like chemical precipitation, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, extraction, membrane separation, adsorption using activated carbon, biosorption, etc., are used for the remotion of heavy metals from aqueous solution (Ye et al 2010; Alguacil et al 2008). Psidium guajava (guava) is a traditional medicinal plant It is a native of Central America but is widely cultivated more than fifty countries in tropics, subtropics, and some of the Mediterranean areas. The primary sources of green adsorbents are the waste of fruits, vegetables, trees, the bark of the trees and agricultural, bi-products of agricultural waste, etc These are low cost compared to the treated or modified complex adsorbents. The present study deals with the fixed-bed adsorption using guava leaves for Cr(VI) ion removal. Mathematical modeling for column mode will be performed in this study

Materials and methods
Results and discussion
Conclusions
Compliance with ethical standards

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