I.

ADSORPTION

An innovative, new, and cost effective method for removal of toxic metals from
industrial waste stream or runoff constitutes a vital need for today: treatment of effluents by
adsorption using low cost filter media could be an attractive option. Through the chemical and
physical process of adsorption, a significant portion of the metal concentration is reduced to a
level that is detrimental to the environment (Agrawal, Sahu and Pandey, 2004). In their study “A
comparative adsorption study of copper on various industrial solid wastes”, the adsorption
behavior of Cu on three solid waste materials, sea nodule residue (SNR), fly ash (FA), and red
mud (RM), was investigated. The effects of various parameters such as pH of the solution,
contact time, temperature, adsorbate and adsorbent concentrations, and particle size of the
adsorbent were studied for optimization of the process parameters. The equilibrium data fit well
with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms in the case of SNR, but not on RM and FA, because
there was no appreciable effect of temperature on the metal removal on these two adsorbents.
Under the optimized conditions the adsorption capacity for copper was found to be 19.5 mg/g of
SNR, 1.98 mg/g of FA, and 2.28 of RM. Thus the adsorption capacity of SNR was found to be
more than that of activated carbon, thus making it suitable for the treatment of industrial
effluents to reduce the level of copper within the permissible limits for its land disposal (3mg/g)
according to ISI guidelines.

The removal of heavy metals from plating factory wastewater with economical materials
was investigated by the column method in the study of Katsumata (Katsumata Hideyuki. et al.,
2003, page 187). Montmorillonite, kaolin, tobermorite, magnetite, silica gel and alumina were
used as the economical adsorbents to wastewater containing Cd(II), Cr(VI), Cu(II) and Pb(II).
This removal method of heavy metals proved highly effective as removal efficiency tended to
increase with increasing pH and decrease with increasing metal concentration. The removal
percentages by adsorption onto montmorillonite, tobermorite, magnetite, and silica gel showed
high values for all metals. From the results for the heat of adsorption, the adsorption process in
the present study might be chemisorption. The proposed method was successfully applied to the
removal of Cd(II), Cr(VI) and Cu(II) in rinsing wastewater from plating factory in Nagoya City,
Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Since the economical adsorbents used can be obtained commercially
because they are easily synthesized, the wastewater treatment system developed is rapid, simple
and cheap for the removal of heavy metals.

The removal of Cd, Cu, Ni and Zn from dilute mine water by using several geological
materials including pure limestone, sand, carbonaceous limestone and brecciate limestone was
performed on a laboratory scale. Pure limestone was found the best one among the four materials
mentioned above for removing heavy metals from mine water. The removal efficiencies of pure
limestone when it is ground as fine as 30–60 meshes are 58.6% for Cd, 100% for Cu, 47.8% for
Ni, and 36.8% for Zn at 20°C. The optimum pH is about 8.9 to 9.1. The mechanism of higher
effective removal, perhaps, is primarily due to co-precipitation under the control of calcite-
related pH value. According to this research, Na2CO3 injection manners, including slug dosing
and drip-wise, seemed to have little impact on the efficiency of heavy metal removal (Yao
Zhigang. et al., 2009, pages 293-298).