An investigative study of sorption kinetics for the adsorption of Arsenic, Lead, and Mercury from wastewater by plant ash material

The newly developed plant ash based material was used to investigate the sorption kinetics for the adsorption of heavy metal ions. This study performed adsorption on Lead (II), Mercury (II) and Arsenic (III) and (V) using batch process. Equilibrium sorption levels were determined as a function of contact time and sorbent and sorbate concentration. pH equilibrium studies on sorbate and sorbent interactions show results indicating the least amount of effect on the interactions because of pH changes. The research was performed to adsorb both high and low concentrations of metal ions keeping time and temperature constant. Results indicated ion exchange to be the major adsorption mechanism for binding the metal ions to the plant ash material. Regeneration studies were not performed on the material as pH showed no effect in the adsorption capacity of the material. The results provide strong evidence to support the hypothesis of adsorption mechanism. The material shows sufficient operation capacity and data obtained from the research indicates the possibility of the use of the material for a practical water treatment facility. The interactions of metals with the salts were also investigated and the results were reported accordingly.