Abstract
This study evaluates the effectiveness of magnetic biochar (Fe2O3-EC) derived from water hyacinth in the removal of Cu+2 and Zn+2 from aqueous solution. Fe2O3-EC was prepared by chemical coprecipitation of a mixture of FeCl2 and FeCl3 on water hyacinth biomass followed by pyrolysis. The adsorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX). Batch adsorption studies on the effects of temperature, biosorbent dosage, contact time, and initial metal ion concentration were carried out. Fe2O3-EC exhibited optimum contact time, biosorbent dosage, and pH values of 65 min, 1.2 g, and 6, respectively. Fe2O3-EC exhibited strong magnetic separation ability and high sorption capability. Metal ion adsorption onto the biochar conformed to the Langmuir isotherm. Kinetic studies revealed that the adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order model. The calculated thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption process was feasible and exothermic in nature. These results have demonstrated that the use of Fe2O3-EC in metal ion removal could provide an alternative way to manage and utilize this highly problematic invasive species.
Highlights
Rapid increase in human industrial activities such as agriculture, mining, and manufacturing has resulted in discharge of heavy metal contaminated wastewaters [1, 2] into main water bodies
This study evaluates the effectiveness of biochar derived from water hyacinth in removing Cu+2 and Zn+2 from aqueous solution
As temperature was further increased beyond 500∘C, there was a notable decrease in surface area due to collapse of the overall mesoporous structure of the adsorbents as a result of volatilization of most of the biomass inorganic binding sites [40]
Summary
Rapid increase in human industrial activities such as agriculture, mining, and manufacturing has resulted in discharge of heavy metal contaminated wastewaters [1, 2] into main water bodies. Among toxic heavy metal pollutants, zinc and copper are often present in industrial wastewaters. Several industrial wastewater techniques such as ion exchange, solvent extraction, chemical precipitation, and activated carbon adsorption are usually applied to remove heavy metal pollutants [6,7,8]. These technologies suffer drawbacks of incomplete pollutant removal, high reagent or energy requirements, and toxic sludge generation [9]. Several plant based biosorbents have been used for the removal of heavy metal pollutants from wastewaters [10,11,12,13]. Huge volumes of polluted industrial wastewaters still demand exploration of newer adsorbents
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