A comparative study for the removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution by agriculture wastes' carbons

This paper reports the feasibility of using agricultural waste and timber industry waste carbons to remove Cr(VI) from synthetic wastewater under different experimental conditions. For this, rice husk and saw dust have been used as adsorbent after sulphuric acid treatment. Effect of various process parameters, namely, pH, adsorbent dose, initial chromium concentration and contact time has been studied in batch systems. Maximum metal removal was observed at pH 2.0. The efficiencies of rice husk carbon (RHC) and saw dust carbon (SDC) for Cr(VI) removal were 91.75% and 94.33%, respectively for aqueous solutions (250 mg L−1) at 20 g L−1 adsorbent dose. The experimental data was analyzed using Freundlich, Langmuir, Dubinin-Redushkevich (D-R) and Temkin isotherm models. It was found that Langmuir, D-R and Temkin models fitted well. The results revealed that the hexavalent chromium is considerably adsorbed on RHC and SDC and it could be an economical method for the removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous systems. FTIR and SEM of the adsorbents were recorded in native and Cr(VI)-loaded state to explore the number and position of various functional groups available for Cr(VI) binding onto studied adsorbents and changes in adsorbent surface morphology. The surface area of RHC and SDC was 1.12 and 1.16 m2 g−1, respectively.