Abstract—This study aims to evaluate the performance efficiency of the proposed adsorbent (rice husk). The adsorptive capacity and removal efficiency of the rice husk were evaluated for the removal of heavy metals of (Cd, Pb and Cr) from aqueous solutions. The results showed the following removal efficiencies: (97.96% for Cd, 90% for Pb, and 84% for Cr). Adsorbent loading capacities for cadmium determined by batch studies were verified through continuous column experiments (fluidized bed). It was found that the maximum adsorption capacity of the candidate adsorbent (5.54) mg/g in Cd batch system. A set of equilibrium isothermal experiments were conducted and fitted with two models; Langmuir and Freundlich. The equilibrium isotherms of rice husk were found to be of a favorable type and Freundlich isotherm model gave the best fit to represent the experimental data of this system with correlation coefficient equals to 0.9934. Eleven continuous experiments were carried out in fluidized bed column to study the effect of initial concentrations, bed depth and flow rate on the performance of adsorption process. Also it was made a comparison between the efficiency of the rice husk adsorbent in removing of Cd(II) with the well-known adsorbent of activated carbon in continuous fluidized bed process. The results proved that the rice husk to be an efficient and economic adsorbent for the removal of different heavy metals from wastewater.
Index Terms—Heavy metals, adsorption, rice husk, batch experiment, continuous fluidized bed experiments.
Jabbar H. Al-Baidhani is with College of Engineering, Babylon University, Iraq (e-mail: jabbaralbaidhani@yahoo.com).
Simaa T. Al-Salihy is with College of Environment Science, University of Al-Qasim Green, Babylon, Iraq (e-mail: simaa.alsalihy@yahoo.com).
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Cite: Removal of Heavy Metals from Aqueous Solution by Using Low Cost Rice Husk in Batch and Continuous Fluidized Experiments, "Jabbar H. Al-Baidhani and Simaa T. Al-Salihy," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 6-10, 2016.
