Biosorption of Zn(II) in High and Low Strength Synthetic Wastewater by Watermelon Rind ( Citrullus lanatus)

Abstract

The heavy metal contain in the industrial wastewater can cause a pollution towards the environment and human due to its toxicity. Therefore extensive studies were conducted for the heavy metal removal. This study was conducted under several conditions by varying pH, biosorbent dosage, initial wastewater concentration and contact time. The results revealed that optimum pH, for high strength synthetic wastewater was 8.0 meanwhile for low strength synthetic wastewater was 7.0. Both high and low strength synthetic wastewater was optimum at 30 minutes of contact time with 1.5g and 0.02g of bisorbent dosage respectively. Meanwhile, the optimum initial metal concentration for high and low strength synthetic wastewater was 400ppm and 1ppm respectively. The results had proven that watermelon rind is able to treat wastewater with high and low concentration of metal.