A Comparison Between Cooking Tea-Waste and Commercial Activated Carbon for Removal of Chromium from Artificial Wastewater

Abstract

The compare Cr (VI) adsorption characteristics removed from artificial wastewater by using decolorized cooking tea waste (CTW) and commercial activated carbon (AC) were examined. Adsorption experiments were carried out in a batch process and various experimental parameters such as the effect of pH, rpm, temperature, adsorbent dosage, contact time, and initial chromium ion concentration on percentage removal have been studied. The adsorption process was found for two adsorbents to be highly pH-dependent. The maximum removal took place at pH 2. A significant fraction of the total Cr (VI) uptake was achieved within 180 min and an initial concentration of 50 mg/L. The maximum efficiency of chromium removal was 99.5% and 99.4% for CTW and AC, respectively, and the maximum adsorption capacity of chromium ions by using AC and CTW were 42.42, 42.46 mg/g respectively. Studies showed that the Freundlich adsorption model was better fitted with the results than Langmuir with R2 equal to 0.991 and 0.974 for AC and CTW, respectively. The chromium uptake by the CTW and AC was best described by the pseudo-second-order rate model. This investigation verifies the possibility of using CTW as a low-cost material for the removal of chromium from an aqueous solution compared with AC.