Removal of Arsenic from Paint Industries Wastewater by Chemically Modified Low Cost Adsorbent Derived from Sugar Cane Bagasse

Arsenic is one of the most toxic heavy metals to the environment which cause community health problem due to its high toxic nature. Several physiochemical techniques, such as adsorption, ion exchange, lime softening, reverse osmosis, coagulation and precipitation are used for arsenic removal but in this study, adsorption was used because of its simplicity to use and availability of a wide range of adsorbents. Adsorption is the process which is used for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. Although there are Various adsorbents methods used to remove different type of heavy metal ions for study, iron impregnated activated carbon which was derived from sugarcane bagasse, was investigated as potential adsorbent for the removal of arsenic from aqueous solution. The synthetic wastewater was prepared in the laboratory to conduct the experiments. Batch experiments were conducted to obtain the optimum conditions for arsenic adsorption. Effect of experimental parameter such as pH, adsorbent dose, and initial arsenic ion concentration was determined at constant contact time of 30min and atmospheric temperature. The optimum conditions obtained were, pH 7, 1mg adsorbent dose and initial concentration of 20mg/L. Adsorption behavior could be described using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Adsorption data was well fitted in Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum adsorption efficiency was found to be 96.5% at optimum experimental parameters of pH 7, adsorbent dose of 1g and initial arsenic concentration of 20mg/L. Keywords: Chemical activation, Carbonization, Impregnation, Activated Carbon, Adsorption, Settling, Filtration, Arsenic Removal DOI: 10.7176/CER/12-10-03 Publication date: October 31 st 2020