IMPROVE HEAVY METALS AND POLLUTANTS REMOVAL FROM THE PHARMACEUTICALS WASTEWATER USING WASHINGTONIA ROBUSTA: NEW EXTRACTION PROCESS

Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. The country's renewable water supply currently only meets about half of the population's water demands. The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes in the level of heavy metals found in pharmaceutical wastewater from Al-Hikma Drugs Industry using palm fronds - Washingtonia Robusta (PF-WR) as organic adsorbents. Removal of heavy metals, turbidity, chemical, and biological oxygen demand, and suspended solids from industrial water using bio-adsorbent materials was studied. Increasing the concentration of PF-WR increased the removal efficiency. The optimum reductions of Fe, Ni, Cu, Cr, Pb, Co, Al, Na, COD, BOD, and turbidity were 64.29 %, 90.35 %, 61.75 %, 62.6 %, 60.60 %, 34.09 %, 10.09 %, 85.26 %, 87.41 %, and 78 %, respectively, were achieved by increasing the PF-WR concentration to 100 %. The removal efficiency was found to be concentration-dependent of PF-WR. The lowest reduction was achieved by sodium and pH.

Automated summary

Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, with the country's renewable water supply meeting only half of the population's water demands. This study investigated the removal of heavy metals from pharmaceutical wastewater using palm fronds as organic adsorbents. The results showed that increasing the concentration of the adsorbent improved the removal efficiency, while the removal effects of sodium and pH were lower.