Comparative Analysis of Heavy Metal Removal using Activated Bamboo and Periwinkle Shell, a Case Study of Cr (III) ion
Heavy metal removal capacity of Activated Bamboo carbon (ABC) and Activated Periwinkle shell (APS) were investigated through adsorption process. ABC and APS were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Parameters such as adsorbent dosage, pH of effluent solution, agitation speed and time of agitation were varied. Results obtained show that FT-IR spectrum of the activated carbon displays a number of absorption peaks, reflecting the complex bio-mass structure and a variety of functional groups such as –OH, -NH, C=O, C-H, C-N, CH3 and CH2 which explains its improved adsorption behaviour on the colloidal particles. Synthetic waste water was prepared and characterized for its pollution characteristics in terms of turbidity, pH, conductivity, total suspended solid, total dissolved solid, nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonium, sulphate, phosphate, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Cr, total aerobic count and total coli form count.
