Chromium removal from industrial wastewater

Heavy metals are continuously released into the aquatic environment in various ways and adversely affect the ecosystem. Thus, the removal of heavy metal is of primary importance. A variety of traditional and advance techniques are available. Adsorbent is one among the many techniques. In this study, locally available low cost adsorbent (Pongamia Pinnata Shell) is used in place of costly activated charcoal in order to evolve cheap adsorption technique for removal of Hexavalen Chromium from industrial wastewater. Laboratory studies were conducted to delineate the effect of parameters on uptake of Hexavalent Chromium and the kinetics of adsoprtion of cr+6 removal. Parameters evaluated include, pH, size of adsorbent, time of contact and initial adsorbate concentration. Equilibrium studies indicate that the process obeyed Langmuir isotherm. However, Freudlich isotherm was used to predict the ultimate sorption capacity. The results indicate that the pongamia pinnata shell can be very effectively, efficiently and economically used to remove Cr +6 from the industrial wastewaters in avidic range. (pH 2.0)