Separation of Heavy Metals Copper (Cu) and Nickel (Ni) from Industrial Wastewater by Adsorption Using Chitosan Shrimp Shell

Abstract

Shrimp shell contains chittin that can be processed become chitosan. Chitosan can be used as bioadsorbent totreat heavy metals content in wastewater. The purposes of this research are to find deacethylation degree ofchitosan from shrimp shell, the constant value of adsorption affinity (k) and adsorption efficiency for variousvariation mass and size of chitosan, heavy metal concentration (solute) in wastewater and to compare adsorptionefficiency between syntetic solution and industrial wastewater. The size variation of the chitosan are 20 meshand 40 mesh. The type of adsorption used is batch until 4 hours with 5 rpm as agitation rate. Deasethylizationdegree for chitosan 20 mesh and 40 mesh are resulted as 75,61% and 77,71 %. More amount of chitosan usedand the smaller size of chitosan make the adsorption efficiency higher as 92,52%. A synthetic solution and PTSIER industrial wastewater are types of wastewater used. PT SIER wastewater contains other metals that canhamper the adsorption of desired metals. Ni is easier to adsorp with 92,52% efficiency than Cu which hasefficiency of 88,52%, because atomic radius of Ni is smaller than Cu. Adsorption affinity constant is influencedby size of the chitosan. The smaller size of chitosan make adsorption affinity constant higher than the bigger size(which is 0,13).