(Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Moratuwa, 2019) Abesekara, MS; Kosvinna, KNR; Amarasinghe, BMWPK; Rathnasiri, PG
Heavy metals in wastewater can be removed by several methods including adsorption. Activated carbon (AC) is widely used, but expensive adsorbent. Since AC derived from coconut shell (CS) is a good adsorbent, coconut shell char (CSC) as well might be an effective low-cost adsorbent. It was studied the possibilities of using CSC as an adsorbent. Results showed that, CSC has 13% and 12% removal efficiencies for Zn2+ and Ni2+ from solutions of 50 mg/l. Furthermore, desorption abilities of H2SO4, NaOH, Distilled water and NaCl as desorbing agents were analysed and found H2SO4 to be the most effective desorbing agent.
