Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Rice Hull-Zeolite for the Removal of Chromium from Tannery Wastewater via Adsorption

Author : Viloria, Jean Christian Munar
Major Adviser : Eusebio, Ramon Christian P.
Committee Members : Gatdula, Kristel M.; Capunitan, Jewel A.
Year : 2019
Month : July
Type : Thesis
Degree: BS
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Abstract

In this study, the removal of trivalent chromium from simulated and actual tannery wastewater through adsorption was performed using a synthetic zeolite prepared from rice husk ash and aluminum foil. The adsorbent was synthesized at autogenous pressure at 200 °C for 6 h and was characterized using particle size analysis (PSA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The zeolite had an average particle size of 1.2207 μm, a flower-like crystalline morphology, an Si/Al ratio of 1.1412 and adsorbed chromium upon contact in solution. In the simulated wastewater tests, adsorption runs were conducted using 100-ppm chromium solutions at pH 1.7 and pH 3.8, where the maximum achieved removals were 47.2343 % and 58.9150 % for loadings of 2 g/L and 3.2 g/L respectively. It was also found that for both pH levels, the adsorption behavior best fit the Freundlich isotherm (R2 = 0.9748 and 0.9072, respectively) and that the ideal contact time was 1 hour, which was used in the parametric runs. A 22 factorial design was used for adsorption of actual tannery wastewater, using high and low values of 2.5 and 5 for the initial pH and 0.8 g/L and 3.2 g/L for the adsorbent loading, while the adsorption capacity and final pH were taken as responses. The ANOVA results indicated that both initial pH and adsorbent loading affected the final pH while only initial pH affected the adsorption capacity.


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