Value adding industrial solid wastes: impact of industrial solid wastes upon copper removal performance of synthesized low cost adsorbents

ABSTRACT

At present, it is necessary to develop low cost adsorbents to remove copper (Cu(II)) from the environment. In this study, adsorbents were produced by pyrolyzing a mixture of pinewood and industrial solid wastes (5:1). The physicochemical characteristics of the resulting adsorbents were assessed using instruments including XRD, BET, SEM and FTIR. The adsorbents had significant effects on the removal rate under a pH of 6 through electrostatic interactions. The maximum adsorption capacities of the three different samples at an initial Cu(II) concentration of 30 mg/L were 1.846 mg/g with BC, 2.166 mg/g with BC-FA, and 2.260 mg/g with BC-CG. The equilibrium data on these adsorbents were accurately represented by the Freundlich model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic equation.

KEYWORDS:

• Low cost adsorbents
• fly ash
• coal gangue
• copper
• adsorption

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nature Science Research Project of Anhui province under Grant Number 1508085ME73.