Treatment of wastewater contaminated with Cd(II)–NTA using Fe(VI)

Abstract

The aim of the present investigation is to assess the applicability of Fe(VI) in the treatment of simulated wastewater contaminated with Cd(II)–nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) soluble species as a cleaner and greener treatment technology. Initially, the degradation of NTA was observed in a single system treatment reactor that applied varied doses of NTA. Results were correlated with the change in Fe(VI) concentration measured by UV–visible spectrophotometer. As a next step, the Fe(VI) was introduced in the reaction reactor containing Cd(II)–NTA species as to investigate the degradation of NTA measured with the help of change in total organic carbon (TOC). The NTA degradation was observed by using the TOC values obtained at different time intervals at pH 10.0. Moreover, the treated samples were subjected to the change in total cadmium concentration as to observe the simultaneous removal of cadmium from the aqueous solutions. The reactivity of the Fe(VI) was also assessed varying the pH from 8.0 to 12.0 in the treatment of Cd(II)–NTA solution.

Keywords:

• Fe(VI)
• Cd(II)
• NTA
• Oxidation
• Reduction

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (MEST) (NRF-2010-0022081). One of co-author DT acknowledges partly the financial support received from DST, New Delhi (vide project No. SR/S1/IC-35/2010).