Abstract:
With rapid urbanization and industrial growth, heavy metals pollution has become a significant environmental concern. The present research work focus on the removal of Pb2+ from the wastewater by using the adsorption process. In this study low-cost parthenium hyestrophrous L. biochar (PBC) was investigated for the treatment of Pb2+ contaminated wastewater. PBC was characterized with scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques to study the surface area morphology, functional groups and crystalinityof the adsorbent. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted with different initial metal ion concentration, dosage of biochar, pH and temperatures. The present study showed that maximum removal efficiency (%) 96.79% was measured for the removal of Pb2+ with 1.0 g L-1 adsorbent for 15 mg L-1 of initial metal ion concentration at pH 6.0 and temperature 30oC with an agitation speed of 450 rpm within 3h. The experimental data of Pb2+ adsorption was well explained by pseudo-second order kinetic where the maximum regression coefficient (R2) was 0.9918. By applying the isotherm models it is assumed that the freundlich isotherm model was more accurate for Pb2+ adsorption. Kinetic and isotherm plats indicated that the adsorption of Pb2+ on the surface of PBC 400oC is chemisorptions. The Pb2+ loaded adsorbent was easily recovered. Maximum removal efficiency was recorded 62.87% after the third cycle of regeneration by the recovered adsorbent. The results of present study suggested that adsorption process using parthenium hyestrophrous biochar as an adsorbent was a spontaneous, feasible and efficient method for the removal of Pb2+ from wastewater.
