Removal of heavy metal from wastewater by using acetylene gas production sludge

Abstract

Rapid industrialization has its downfall where the release of heavy metals to the environment also increases from the discharge of industrial wastewater. Acetylene Production Sludge (APS) can be used as a secondary raw material in wastewater treatment. The use of APS in heavy metal removal does not affect the environment and it is cheaper compared to using NaOH since it is a natural bioadsorbent. The first objective of this study was to determine the optimum parameter (dosage, pH) in the chemical precipitation process for the removal of heavy metals. In addition, the study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency for the percentage removal of heavy metals from using APS as well as to compare the performance with the current method of removal. Lastly, the study was conducted to develop a modelling, simulation of the chemical precipitation process of treating wastewater using APS. Characterization study for APS was done using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescent (XRF), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Jar test was done to study the Cu, Zn and Ni removal by varying the pH from 8 to 12. From the result obtained, the optimum heavy metal removal was found at an APS dosage of 0.175 g and pH of 10.5. The APS performance was then validated from adsorption isotherm, multilinear regression Excel Data Analysis Toolpak and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Minitab software. The study shows that the APS is capable of treating heavy metal contaminated wastewater.