Performance evaluation of activated neem bark for the removal of Zn(II) and Cu(II) along with other metal ions from aqueous solution and synthetic pulp & paper industry effluent using fixed-bed reactor

The fixed-bed adsorption experiments are performed for the removal of copper [Cu(II)] and zinc [Zn(II)] by utilizing activated neem bark as an adsorbent. The present study demonstrated the effect of various parameters such as inlet concentration, adsorbent mass and inlet flowrate for the removal of Cu(II) and Zn(II) from aqueous solutions. Various kinetic parameters such as EBRT, stoichiometric capacity, breakthrough time, etc. are evaluated using the experimental data. Yoon–Nelson and Yan model available in the literature are also validated with the experimental data. The developed adsorbent is also tested for the simultaneous removal of multiple metal ions [Cr(VI), Cu(II), Zn(II), Pb(II), Ni(II) and Cd(II)] from the synthetically prepared pulp & paper industrial effluent.