Kinetic studies for the absorption of organic matter from purified solution of zinc by coconut shell activated carbon

Abstract

In this study, the adsorption characteristics of organic matter from purified solution of zinc was investigated using coconut shell activated carbon, with the aim to remove the organic matter from the solution after zinc hydrometallurgy. The effects of adsorption time on organic matter removal rate were studied. According to the experimental result, the COD and removal rate of organic matter in purified solution of zinc were 33.04mg/L and 54.36%, respectively, under the condition of adsorption time of 160min, temperature of 75 °C, sample weight of 0.75g/L. The kinetic results showed that the organic matter adsorption onto coconut shell activated carbon followed pseudo-second-order kinetics model well with a coefficient greater than 0.9916. Weber and Morris theory, Boyd dynamic equation analysis showed that external mass transfer is the primary control step.