Adsorption of chromium(VI) for wastewater treatment by native sawdust
Abstract
Adsorption of chromium(VI) for wastewater treatment using native sawdust derived from hardwood tanguile and softwoods palochina and coconut were investigated. Various parameters such as adsorbent surface area, adsorbent dose, adsorbate concentration, contact time, and pH were studied. Equilibrium was reached after 2 hours at a pH of 2. The Langmuir isotherm model was fitted with the adsorption data with R2=0.978±0.008. Softwoods were found to be better adsorbents, with higher maximum adsorption capacities for coconut (0.455) and palochina (0.444), than hardwood tanguile (0.387). Results indicate that HCl-treated coconut sawdust is the most efficient adsorbent with the highest chromium removal of 74.53% at equilibrium.