Abstract

Pomegranate Peel Treated With Different Chemicals as Novel Biosorbent of Heavy Metals such as PB, CD, From Tanneries Effluents

Muhmmad Arslan Hameed

The effective removal of heavy metals from aqueous wastes is among the most important issues for many industrialized countries. Removal of cadmium (II) and lead (II) from aqueous solutions were studied using locally available and cost-effective pomegranate peel. Different chemical treatments were applied on it such as acid, alkali, formaldehyde and mixture treatment of formaldehyde and sulphuric acid. Batch adsorption experiments were performed in order to study the effect of biosorbent dose, time of contact and pH using untreated pomegranate peel powder for the purpose of optimizing the process of removing heavy metals. The optimum dose, contact time and pH required for maximum adsorption were found to be 5 g/100 cm3 of biosorbent dose, 5 hours contact time and pH= 3.0. The waste waters collected from different tanneries of Kasur were treated with different chemically treated biosorbents under these aforementioned optimum conditions. It was observed that acid treated pomegranate peel powder has better quality of adsorption of cadmium and lead from tannery waste water with percent removal 97 and 99 for cadmium and lead respectively.

Published Date: 2020-05-18; Received Date: 2020-02-10