EXPERIMENTAL SCRUTINIZATION ON THE TREATMENT OF SYNTHETIC WASTEWATER USING NEEM BARK AND DATE PALM FIBER AS AN ADSORBENT

Abstract

Industrial activities are the major causes of water contamination worldwide as they contain heavy metals with a high concentration leading to environmental threats and health issues. Neem bark and Date palm fiber were established in this research work as low-cost adsorbents to eliminate Copper (Cu) from synthetic wastewater. Batch studies were conducted for each adsorbent particle size of 1.18 mm and 0.6 mm. The influence of pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage, speed, temperature, and initial concentration were scrutinized. The smaller particle size (0.6 mm) was more efficient than the bigger particle size for both adsorbents. The optimum conditions for neem bark of size 0.6 mm were at an adsorbent dosage of 0.3 g, pH of 6, 30 minutes of contact time, initial concentration of 100 ppm, and stirring speed of 1000 rpm for a copper reduction of 97%. The date palm fiber of 0.6 mm resulted in a copper reduction of 91% at optimum pH 5.5, contact time of 45 minutes, stirring speed of 1200 rpm, and adsorbent dosage of 0.3 g. The adsorbents were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)-EDS and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The SEM-EDS analysis displayed a carbon content of 64.1% in neem bark and 58.9% in date palm fiber. The FTIR analysis presented the functional groups in the adsorbent responsible for the adsorption of Copperas carboxyl and hydroxyl groups. In addition, the equilibrium adsorption data of Neem bark well fitted the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models having the correlation coefficients (R2 ) respectively as 0.9815 and 0.9024. Experimental data with date palm fiber fitted the Langmuir isotherm model with an (R2 ) value of 0.9601.