Removal of sulfide ions from water using rice husk

Abstract

Sulfide is an unwanted anion present in tannery effluents. In this study, a raw material namely rice husk has been used to check its performance to remove sulfide ions from water in batch adsorption experiments. The effects of various physical parameters such as contact time, pH, shaking speed and temperature have been investigated to optimize the conditions for maximum adsorption efficiency. Rice husk was further pretreated with calcium chloride, zinc chloride and organic solvents to check any change in uptake capacity of the adsorbent. Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherms were used to explain the nature and mechanism of adsorption. The results argue that rice husk could be a useful material to treat sulfide-containing wastewaters.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• sulfide
• adsorption
• rice husk
• tannery effluent
• hydrogen sulfide
• isotherm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.