Adsorption of Aluminum, Arsenic and Sulphate Ions from Synthetic and Real Underground Water by Marine Fouling

The removal of Al3+, As3+ and SO42- ions from aqueous solution was investigated by using marine fouling. The effect of removal of adsorbent was studied in batch technique under various operating parameters such as pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, adsorbent particle size and metal ions concentration at 500 rpm and 25oC. The maximum removal of Al3+, As3+ and SO42- was 100% at pH 5 for Al3+, pH 8 for As3+ and pH 3 for SO42- using 0.7 g for 120 min. and 45 μm of adsorbent particle size. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models were under taken to analyse the equilibrium data. Langmuir isotherm showed the best fit to the equilibrium data, which gave maximum adsorption capacity for Al3+, As3+ and SO42- was 28.81, 23.58 and 34.48 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption process follows the pseudo-second-order model. This study recommended that marine fouling can be used for removal of toxic metal ions due to highly efficiently and low cost.