Ultrafast remediation of lead-contaminated water applying sphagnum peat moss by dispersive solid-phase extraction

ABSTRACT

Lead poisoning, correlated to the high blood lead levels among the children of the Gaza Strip, is another severe problem for Palestinians. The paper reports a cost-effective and time-effective remediation by sphagnum moss, which can remove lead from aqueous solution through dispersive solid-phase extraction. The optimum conditions of adsorption such as equilibrium time, pH, adsorbate initial concentration and adsorbent mass were investigated. In conclusion, a cost-effective and ultrafast lead uptake of ~95% was established in 60 s as adsorption-equilibrium contact time. Thus, a design of flow-through remediation unit for lead removal from real-life contaminated water would provide healthy outflow water. Moreover, regeneration and reuse of sphagnum in lead removal is advantageous for less developed economies with a problem of lead pollution in their water.

KEYWORDS:

• Ultrafast removal
• lead
• sphagnum peat moss

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr Ahmad Al-Maghary, Bir-Zeit Environmental Lab, for collecting and supplying the wastewater and the leachate samples. We are also grateful to the Middle East Desalination Research Centre (MEDRC) for the partial funding of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.