Adsorption study of hexavalent chromium using tamarind hull-based adsorbents

The adsorption characteristics of hexavalent chromium was studied with an adsorbent developed from waste tamarind hull. Experiments were conducted in batch mode to observe the influence of different parameters such as initial concentration of metal ions, adsorbent dosage, adsorbent particle size, stirrer speed, temperature and pH of the solution. Acidic pH strongly favored the adsorption. With decreasing the pH of the solution from 5.0 to 1.0, the removal of chromium was enhanced from 33% to 99%. The adsorption process was found to follow a pseudo-first-order rate mechanism and the rate constant was evaluated at 30 °C. The Freundlich, Redlich–Peterson and the Fritz–Schlunder isotherm fit the equilibrium data satisfactorily. Adsorption of chromium was found to increase with increase in the process temperature. Using an adsorbent dosage of 1.0 g/L and an acidic pH (2.0), the equilibrium adsorption capacity of the prepared adsorbent was found to be about 70 mg/g at 30 °C, which increased to about 81 mg/g at 50 °C. The entropy change, free energy change and heats of adsorption were determined for the process.