Removal of some polluting metals from industrial water using chicken feathers

This work proposes the use of chicken feathers (CF) as a natural source of active amino acids after alkali treatments with 0.95N NaOH and 0.6N NaOCl solutions and immobilization on silica surface as regenerable sorbents to remove calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese polluting industrial water sectors. Batch sorption and sorption isotherm were performed to evaluate the effect of sorption process parameters, such as pH, time, sorbent amount, metal concentration, temperature, interfering anions and metal selectivities. The results obtained revealed that 1.0 g of NaOH treated CF immobilized silica removes 93.38% Ca, 72.55% Mg, 97.13% Fe and 95.66% Mn, while 1.0 g of NaOCl treated CF immobilized silica removes 92.14% Ca, 71.85% Mg, 94.26% Fe and 93.57% Mn at pH, 9, 8.5, 6 and 7, within 20-30 min respectively. Generally, the NaCl CF regenerable sorbents were applied successfully for treating industrial water samples in different Egyptian industrial areas (zones).