Efficiency of Sawdust from Selected African Indigenous Wood spp. as a Low-cost Adsorbent for Removal of Copper Ion from Contaminated Water

Abstract

Aims: This study investigates the use of sawdust from 3 hardwood species as low-cost adsorbent for the removal of copper from contaminated water.
 Study Design: The experimental design used for this study was 3 x 2 x 4 factorial experiment; the different sawdust species, two baselines (treated and untreated) and four levels of pH and time as factors were combined and used for the study.
 Methodology: Test was carried out to investigate the effect of sawdust pre-treatment on their adsorption capacity in the removal of Copper ions from contaminated water at different pH levels; the sawdust samples were sieved through a screen size of 850 μm after which a portion of each species sawdust was subjected to pre-treatment by boiling while the other portions were maintained as control samples (untreated).
 Results: The results shows that adsorption capacity for both treated and untreated samples were 69.75±13.78%, 68.60±19.48%, 69.34±23.08%, 74.79±17.79%, 74.52±22.30% and 76.90±18.21% for Alstonia boonei, Erythrophleum suaveolens and Ficus mucuso respectively.
 Conclusion: The contact time and pH showed no significant difference between the treated and untreated samples. Sawdusts from the selected wood species are suitable to be used as adsorbent towards the removal of copper from contaminated water.