Influence of operating conditions on adsorption of lead (II)‎ ions from contaminated water using different adsorbents

Abstract EN

Removal of heavy metals from water and wastewater has received a great deal of attention.

Adsorption is one of the most technologies being used for treatment of polluted water.

This study records lab scale experiments to test efficiency of activated carbon as an adsorbent and comparing it with low-cost naturally occurring materials (sand and egg shells) in removing lead ions from wastewater.

The adsorption of lead ions from solutions containing different initial lead concentrations (100, 150 and 200 ppm pb as lead nitrate) using different particle size (140, 300 and 500 μm) and different doses of activated carbon, sand and egg shells at different pH (4, 7 and 10) was examined.

Also the metal concentration retained in the adsorbent phase (mg / g) was calculated.

This method of heavy metals removal proved highly effective as removal efficiency increased with increasing adsorbent dose while it decreased with increasing metals concentration.

The results revealed that of the studied adsorbents, the activated carbon showed the highest adsorption capacity and the maximum adsorption can be obtained by using particle size of 140 μm in neutral media (pH 7).

This technique might be successfully used for the removal of lead ions from liquid industrial wastes and wastewater.