Cyanide removal simulation from wastewater in the presence of titanium dioxide nanoparticles

Abstract

One of the methods of removing cyanide from wastewater is surface adsorption. We simulated the removal of cyanide from a synthetic wastewater in the presence of Titanium dioxide nano-particles absorbent uses VISUAL MINTEQ 3.1 software. Our aim was to determine the factors affecting the adsorption of cyanide from synthetic wastewater applying simulation. Synthetic wastewater with a concentration of 100 mg/l of potassium cyanide was used for simulation. The amount of titanium dioxide was 1 g/l under the temperature of <TEX>$25^{\circ}C$</TEX>. The simulation was performed using an adsorption model of Freundlich and constant capacitance model. The results of simulation indicated that three factors including pH, nanoparticles of titanium dioxide and the primary concentration of cyanide affect the adsorption level of cyanide. The simulation and experimental results had a good agreement. Also by increasing the pH level of adsorption increases 11 units and then almost did not change. An increase in cyanide concentration, the adsorption level was decreased. In simulation process, rising the concentrations of titanium dioxide nanoparticles to 1 g/l, the rate of adsorption was increased and afterward no any change was observed. In all cases, the coefficient of determination between the experimental data and simulation data was above 0.9.