Thermodynamic and kinetic studies of biosorption of iron and manganese from aqueous medium using rice husk ash

Abstract

The adsorption behavior of rice husk ash with respect to manganese and iron has been studied by batch methods to consider its application for water and waste water treatment. The optimum conditions of adsorption were determined by investigating the effect of initial metal ion concentration, contact time, adsorbent dose, pH value of aqueous solution and temperature. Adsorption equilibrium time was observed at 120 min. The adsorption efficiencies were found to be pH dependent. The equilibrium adsorption experimental data were found to fit the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherms for iron, but fitted only Langmuir isotherm for manganese. The pseudo-second order kinetic model was found to describe the manganese and iron kinetics more effectively. The thermodynamic experiment revealed that the adsorption processes involving both metals were exothermic. The adsorbent was finally applied to typical raw water with initial manganese and iron concentrations of 3.38 mg/l for Fe and 6.28 mg/l, respectively, and the removal efficiency was 100 % for Mn and 70 % for Fe. The metal ions were desorbed from the adsorbent using 0.01 M HCl, it was found to quantitatively remove 67 and 86 % of Mn and Fe, respectively, within 2 h. The results revealed that manganese and iron are considerably adsorbed on the adsorbent and could be an economic method for the removal of these metals from aqueous solutions.