UTILIZATION OF RICE HUSK TO REMOVE Cu2+, Al3+, Ni2+ AND Zn2+ FROM WASTEWATER

UTILIZATION OF RICE HUSK TO REMOVE Cu2+, Al3+, Ni2+ AND Zn2+ FROM WASTEWATER. The potential use of rice husk as biosorbent to remove Cu2+, Al3+, Ni2+ and Zn2+ ions from aqueous solutions was investigated under both noncompetitive and competitive conditions. The biosorbent was used in the form of particles with size smaller than 0.5 mu m and in the concentration of 500 mg L-1 (dry weight). The experiments were performed using batch adsorption technique for concentrations of 10, 30 and 70 mg L-1 of metal ions at pH 4.0 and 5.0. The chemical speciation of metals in the experimental conditions used in this work was predicted by the software Visual MINTEQ 2.6.