Title: Biosorption of divalent copper from aqueous solution using mallet flower leaves powder as adsorbent

Authors: Devarapalli Venkata Padma; Susarla Venkata Ananta Rama Sastry

Addresses: Department of Chemical Engineering, A.U.C.O.E (A), Visakhapatnam, India; Department of Chemical Engineering, MVGR College of Engineering, (A), Vizianagaram, A.P., India ' Department of Chemical Engineering, Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur-208002, (U.P), India

Abstract: The presence of heavy metals like copper, chromium, lead etc. poses a serious problem for the aquatic bodies. Biosorption has been used as an important method for removing heavy metals. In this paper, mallet flower leaves powder (MFLP) is used as an adsorbent for removal of copper ions from aqueous solutions. Adsorption experiments were conducted in batch mode using MFLP, establishing it as a good adsorbent. The paper explores the effect of agitation time, initial concentration of copper, pH, adsorbent dosage and temperature on the removal of copper ions. Highest metal removal was observed at an agitation time of 40 minutes, adsorbent size of 74 µm, adsorbent dosage of 20 g/l, pH of 6, initial concentration of Cu (II) at 20 ppm and temperature of 20°C. The highest metal removal was 98.78% at optimum conditions. Scanning electron micrograph clearly showed the morphology, surface texture and presence of active sites on MFLP.

Keywords: adsorbent; aqueous solution; atomic absorption spectrophotometer; batch; biosorption; copper; dosage; heavy metals; mallet flower leaves powder; recovery; scanning electron microscope.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2022.124688

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2022 Vol.29 No.4, pp.444 - 458

Received: 27 Aug 2019
Accepted: 14 Jun 2020
Published online: 08 Aug 2022 *

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