Removal of Zinc from Aqueous Solution Using Activated Oil Shale

Abstract EN

Egyptian oil shale was investigated as a source of adsorbent for removal of zinc from aqueous solutions.

Egyptian oil shale (OS) was used as an adsorbent without any treatment, then thermally activated in absence of air (Carbo-OS), and separately burned to produce ash (OS-ash).

Egyptian oil shale was also chemically activated by zinc chloride (ZnCl2-OS) respectively.

The present study aims at investigating the removal of Zn2+ ions from an aqueous solution via adsorption and thermal and chemical activation of locally sourced oil shale.

Also, the effect of different operation parameters, like heavy metal and sorbent concentration as well as adsorbent’s uptake time of heavy metals is studied.

It was found that activated oil shale successfully removed high amount of Zn from an aqueous solution.

As the adsorbent concentration was increased keeping zinc concentration constant, greater metal removal from the solution was observed.

And, as the zinc concentration was increased keeping sorbent concentration constant, higher metal loading per unit weight of the sorbent was achieved.

The Langmuir isotherm model fit the experimental data of Zn2+ ions.

The results indicated that oil shale could be used to adsorb Zn2+ ions and that thermally activated oil shale resulted in 99% removal for Zn2+.