Uses of some nano-sized organic wastes to treat industrial wastewater

Abstract

Industrial progress led to environmental pollution and one of this pollution is heavy metals which accumulate in water bodies, and this causes a serious health hazard to all living organisms. Chromium is one of the heavy metals that are used in various industries. It is present in wastewater in two toxic forms chromium (III) and chromium (VI). Agricultural byproducts as green tea spoil (GTn) and pomegranate peels (PPn) are used for metal adsorption. Its particle size ranged from 12 to 43 nm investigated by TEM. It is found that, the adsorption of Cr (VI) ions dependent on different parameters such as pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, and particle size. The results showed that the remova1 efficiency of Cr (VI) ions was 99.98 and 98.95% for both GTn and PPn, at pH 7, 210 min contact time, and 1g/100ml dose. The utilization of these sources of agricultural byproducts would solve some disposal problems as well as techniques in using cheaper materials for the adsorption of heavy metals in aqueous wastewater due to its abundant available, biodegradable, and reuse material.