Heavy metal removal from the wastewater using the tea waste derived bio char synthesized through microwave pyrolysis

Abstract

Water pollution is one of the prime challenges towards the mankind and it needs to be addressed to safeguard the human and aquatic life. Among the different type of pollutants, heavy metals such as Ni, Hg, Pb, Zn, As, Cd, Sb dissolved in the water pose serious threat. Bio char derived from the biomass waste has shown a significant potential in removing the heavy metals from wastewater. This study is aimed to investigate the efficacy of the tea waste char (TWC) to remove the hazardous heavy metals Cd and Hg from the wastewater. TWC was synthesized through microwave pyrolysis technique. The obtained tea waste derived char was characterized using FT-IR and BET surface area. BET analysis of TWC show that microwave pyrolysis of tea waste was successful in developing the pores. BET surface area of the synthesized TWC was 289.35 m2/g. Effect of contact time, pH of wastewater, and pollutant loading concentration on the removal of Cd and Hg was investigated in the current study. Cd and Hg removal capacities were observed to be 44.8 % and 50.2 % respectively.