Performance studies removal of chromium (Cr6+) and lead (Pb2+) by oil palm frond (OPF) adsorbent in aqueous solution

Abstract

The application of biomass waste adsorbent in removing heavy metal ion from water stream as a substitute for the commercial available adsorbent had been widely used. Oil palm frond which is one of the waste from oil palm plantation are abundantly available as there is high agricultural activities at the plantation. The oil palm frond was used to remove chromium ion (Cr6+) and lead ion (Pb2+) from aqueous solution that acts as synthetic wastewater. This performance study is conducted to measure the adsorption capacity of oil palm frond by varying the adsorbent dosage and initial concentration of metal ion solution. The findings show that removal of metal ion increase as the adsorbent dosage increase. This can be seen that the amount of chromium ion (Cr6+) and lead ion (Pb2+) had been reduced by 84.5% and 94.0% respectively when 2g of adsorbent was used compared to only 32.0% of Cr6+ and 46.1% of Pb2+ removed. At constant adsorbent dosage (0.5g) and volume of metal ion solution (50mL), the initial concentration of the solution was varied from 5ppm, 10ppm, 15ppm, 20ppm, 30ppm, 50ppm, 70ppm, and 100ppm. The result showed that the adsorption capacity of the adsorbent was the highest at 100ppm of metal ion solution which is 2.044mg/g for Cr6+ and 5.322mg/g for Pb2+. In can be concluded that increase amount of adsorbent can reduce more metal while increasing the initial concentration of the metal ion solution give higher adsorption capacity. In overall, the findings give us insights that oil palm frond can be used as adsorbent to remove heavy metal ion from wastewater and aqueous solution