Removal and recovery of heavy metals from electroplating wastewater by using Kyanite as an adsorbent

Kyanite, a commercial mineral has been utilized as an adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals, such as Ni(II), Zn(II), Cr(VI) and Cu(II) from electroplating wastewater. The effect of contact time, pH, concentration, adsorbent doses, particle size of the adsorbent, salinity and hardness, both in natural and wastewater on the adsorption of Cu(II) have been studied in detail. The adsorption of metal ions seems to be an ion exchange process. The adsorbed metals ions from electroplating wastewater were recovered by batch as well as column operation using dilute HCl solution. The column operation was found to be more effective compared to batch process. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.