Title: Removal of cyanide by sorption onto protonated biomass - effect of variables and kinetic studies

Authors: N. Rajamohan

Addresses: Department of Chemical Engineering, Sohar University, P.C.311, Sohar, Sultanate of Oman

Abstract: This paper presents a parametric study on the removal of cyanide from wastewaters using protonated date palm tree powder as a sorbent. The effect of process parameters such as pH, sorbent dose, initial sorbate concentration and temperature on the performance of adsorption was studied. The optimal pH was found to be 7.0. The removal efficiency increased with increase in sorbent dose due to the availability of more surface sites. At optimal pH of 7.0 and sorbent dose of 6.0 g/L, 82% cyanide removal was attained at an initial cyanide concentration of 100 mg/L. The sorption rate increased with increase in temperature confirming the endothermic nature of the process. Kinetic experiments indicated that the sorptive removal of cyanide ions by protonated biomass followed pseudo second order model. Higher values of R² (> 0.99) were obtained for the pseudo-second order model. The kinetic constants were evaluated at different initial cyanide concentrations. The sorption mechanism was identified as chemisorption and the applicability of intra particle diffusion model was verified.

Keywords: cyanide removal; date palm; kinetics; wastewater treatment; sorption; protonated biomass; sorbent dose; chemisorption; particle diffusion modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2015.069254

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2015 Vol.7 No.1, pp.50 - 59

Received: 10 Dec 2013
Accepted: 25 May 2014
Published online: 06 May 2015 *

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