Abstract
Heavy metal pollution is a major problem in the environment due to its extreme toxicity towards aquatic life and humans. Hence, there is a need for controlling its emission into the environment. Among the different technologies for heavy metals removal, adsorption was found to be a common and very efficient due to its availability,Iow cost, easy of operation and efficiency. Sugarcane bagasse (SB) is available in abundant quantity and is widely used as an adsorbent. SB was used in different metal detoxifications in water and wastewater such as the sorption of Zn(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II) ions from their aqueous solution. SB was characterized and has been used in two directions for heavy metals removal; before and after modification by H2SO4. In this study, Variety parameters like pH, contact time, adsorbent dose and the initial metal ions concentration were studied in batch experiments. The maximum removal capacities for Zn(II) were 92% for untreated SB and 96% for treated SB with H2SO4, for Pb(II) were found 86% for untreated SB and 92% for treated SB with H2SO4 while for Ni(II) were found 78% for untreated SB and 90% for treated SB with H2SO4 at optimum conditions. The maximum removal of Zn(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II) was obtained at 5 mu g/ml initial concentration. It was noted that the metal ion removal capacity for SB-H2SO4 more than SB-native, which indicated that the chemical treatment enhanced the biosorption of metal ions. To describe the adsorption isotherms, langmuir and freundlich models were used where langmuir isotherm was found to be more fitted (R-2 = 0.99) than freundlich isotherm(R-2=0.91-0.97). The biosorption process obeyed pseudo-second-order kinetics. This study showed that SB is a suitable and low cost-effective adsorbent for Zn(II), Pb(II) and Ni(II) ions removal from their aqueous solutions.