Adsorption processes have been proven to be an effective water treatment technology. Activated carbon has undoubtedly been considered a universal adsorbent for the removal of a variety of pollutants from water. However, its high cost has restricted its commercial use. Although it is evident from the literature that various low-cost adsorbents have shown good potential for the removal of various pollutants, there are few reports of their use on binary and ternary metal solutions. The work reported here investigated the adsorption behavior of charred coffee waste when exposed to both single and binary metal component solutions under varying initial concentrations (1000, 500, and 250 ppm) and contact time (3 and 24 hrs.) After the exposure times, the residual concentrations of each heavy metal was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry. Results suggest that the percentage of metal adsorption is inversely related to initial metal concentration. The adsorbent has a higher affinity for Cu than Zn ion in both single and binary metal solutions across all initial metal ion concentrations, adsorbent doses, and contact times.

Selectivity in heavy metal removal from contaminated water using agrowaste

256th National Meeting (2018)

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