Kinetic Studies of Heavy Metal Removal from Industrial Wastewater by Using Natural Zeolite

Abstract

The present work involves the study of the removal of Cu2+, Fe3+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ from synthetic metal solutions using natural zeolite. Laboratory experiments were used to investigate the efficiency of adsorbents in the uptake of heavy metals from industrial wastewater. The kinetic study was used to identify the effect of parameters that affect the rate of adsorption and evaluated their impact on the efficiency of the zeolite in the removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater. Natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) as adsorbent contacted with multi-component synthetic solutions containing Cu2+, Fe3+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ ions without any pre-modifications and every hour 15 ml of the samples were filtered and taken for metal ion concentration analysis using the ICP-OES. The pH values were monitored and adjusted regularly. The results showed that the capacity of the adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals increased with a greater mass of absorbent, increased initial solution pH, increased agitation speed and higher solution concentration.