Removing heavy metals from wastewater by using rice husk wastes fiber

Abstract

Environmental problems increase due to disposal of wastes in large quantities. Industrial wastewater is the most serious pollutants because it contains high concentrations of toxic substances and heavy metals. Agricultural wastes also cause environmental pollutants especially when it is disposed by burning. So, it is necessary to find usage of agricultural wastes as a low cost material for adsorption of heavy metals such as zinc and chromium in industrial wastewater.Rice husk fiber was used in this study to remove zinc and chromium from industrial wastewater. The obtained removal ratios obtained were 94.33% and 89.2% for Zn+2 and Cr (VI), respectively. The study showed that the removal ratio increases by increasing the adsorption contact time and decreasing the flow rate. It also showed that, the removal efficiency for zinc was better than Cr (VI) using rice husk waste fiber. The success of use the cheap adsorbent as adsorbent material from the agricultural waste in industrial wastewater treatment open the door for the existing factories to treat their wastewater with low cost that has no effect on their profits and prevent any punishment for environmental pollution.