Performance of Laterite Soil Grains as Adsorbent in the Removal of Chromium

Abstract

The present study aims to examine the efficiency of laterite grains (LG) and acid activated laterite grains (AALG) as an adsorbent for removal hexavalent chromium and ferric ion from synthetic wastewater, under laboratory conditions. Adsorption of hexavalent chromium and ferric ion from synthetic wastewater is examined by batch and column studies wherein it is found to be dependent on pH, Contact time, adsorbent dosage and initial adsorbate concentration. Percentage removal enhances with the increase in adsorbent dosage and with low pH, the optimal removal is achieved at pH=2. AALG is found to investigate possibility of improvement in removal efficiency of hexavalent chromium. The removal efficiency of AALG is found to be significantly higher than the efficiency obtained from LG, at pH=7. An adsorbent dosage 2g of LG is found to be optimum for removal of ferric ion with low initial concentration of 2.5 mg/L. The equilibrium adsorption data obtained from batch studies were fitted with Langmuir and freundlich isotherm for both hexavalent chromium and ferric ions. The percentage removal obtained from batch adsorption studies were found to be higher than that obtained by column studies for both the adsorbates.