Removal of Cu (II) in aqueous solution by adsorption using activated carbon produced from sewage sludge

Abstract

Human activities degrade natural resources and produced waste that compromises quality of life and environmental balance. Aquatic sources have been polluted with excess organic matter and other materials, such as toxic metals, making it difficult to use. The present work aims the removal of cu (II) through the adsorption on activated carbon produced from sewage sludge. A synthetic solution of cu (II) was prepared at 60 mg.L-1 and put in contact with 80 mg of activated carbon. The samples were subjected to a shaking of 150 rpm and time of 40 min. It was found that it reached equilibrium in the time of 2 min presenting a removal efficiency greater than 85 %, obtaining a better fit to the pseudo-second order kinetic model. In order to verify the adsorption capacity, equilibrium studies were carried out through the application of adsorption models. The Freundlich model was the one that presented the best result (R2 = 0.9982). These results show that the use of coal produced from sewage sludge is promising for application in the removal of copper ions, promoting the use of sludge, waste with no economic value, as an adsorbent, in addition also allows to minimize the contamination by copper metal.