BIOSORPTION OF CU(II) IONS FROM INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS BY RICE HUSK: EXPERIMENT, STATISTICAL, AND ANN MODELING

Heavy metal removal from wastewater is a significant research area and recommends sustainable development. The heavy metals cause harmful health effects, increase environmental toxicity. Adsorption is a very effective method for heavy metal removal. A fixed bed for Cu(II) removal using rice hush, an agricultural waste, is reported in this paper. The study was carried out to determine the breakthrough curves with varying operating variables like influent concentration (10–30 mg/L), flow rate (10–40 ml/min), and bed height (4–10 cm) at pH 6. The variation of the process variables like influent concentration, flow rate, and bed height were investigated. The experimental data shows that adsorption capacity increases with the rise of influent concentration. The maximum value of adsorption capacity is 10.93 mg/g at a flow rate of 10 ml/min, bed height 4 cm, and influent concentration 30 mg/L. The applicability of the MLR and ANN modeling has also been successfully carried out. ANN has better predictability than MLR. The findings revealed that rice husk could be used to treat copper-containing industrial effluents.