A Green Route for Copper Ions Removal from Textile Industry Effluent

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Singhal, Shailey^b | Agarwal, Shilpi^{b; *} | Sharma, Rajan^a | Singhal, Naveen^a | Kumar, Amit^b

Affiliations: [a] Dept. of Chemistry, DIT University, Dehradun – 248007, India | [b] Dept. of Chemistry, College of Engineering Studies, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies Dehradun & 248007, India

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding Author. shilpi@ddn.upes.ac.in

Abstract: The adsorption of copper(II) on tea waste has been studied in batch mode using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy for metal estimation. Important process parameters like adsorbent dose, pH, contact time, reaction temperature, shaking speed and particle size were investigated. Adsorption was found to be in accordance with Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms. The maximum amount of copper(II) adsorbed (qm), as evaluated by Langmuir isotherm, was approximately 1.33 mg per gram of powder of tea waste per litre of solution. The optimized process parameters were observed to be 3 g adsorbent, pH 5, 40°C temperature, 120 rpm shaking speed and 150 μm particle size. The effectiveness of tea waste for copper removal from industrial effluent was observed to be around 95.345%. The used tea waste after adsorption produced 51.76% methane as biofuel.

Keywords: Teawaste, heavy metals, adsorption, biogas production

DOI: 10.3233/AJW-150010

Journal: Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 75-81, 2015