Removal of lead and sodium ions from aqueous media using natural wastes for desalination and water purification

• Published in: Desalination and water treatment Vol. 57; no. 19; pp. 8911 - 8926
• Main Author: Ahmed, Salwa A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Elsevier Inc 20-04-2016; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adsorbents; Adsorption; Bagasse; Beet pulp; Cellulose; Desalination; Fourier transforms; Heavy metals; Ion concentration; Irrigation water; Lead; Mathematical models; Metal concentrations; Removal; Scanning electron microscopy; Sodium; Sugarcane; Sugarcane bagasse; Wastes; Water analysis; Water purification; Water samples; Water sampling; X-ray diffraction; Removal; Beet pulp; Desalination; Heavy metals; Water samples; Sugarcane bagasse
• ISSN: 1944-3986; 1944-3994; 1944-3986
• DOI: 10.1080/19443994.2015.1024745

Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) and beet pulp (BP) are promising low cost natural wastes with cellulose–lignin polymeric structure. Their adsorption properties for the removal of Pb(II) and Na(I) under variable conditions of solution pH, time of equilibrium, weight of adsorbent, and metal ion concentration were investigated. These two adsorbents were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectra, Scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray diffraction. SCB and BP showed high percentage of extraction of Pb(II) (100.0 ± 1.0% and 100.0 ± 0.5%) and Na(I) (97.5 ± 0.1% and 98.9 ± 0.1%), respectively. The adsorption isotherm data for Pb(II) and Na(I) ions by the two adsorbents were modeled using Langmuir and Freundlich equations. Furthermore, the adsorption kinetics data were best fitted with the pseudo-second-order type. Finally, the proposed method has been successfully applied for removal of Pb(II) from environmental water samples. Adapting batch condition, this application revealed high efficiency and good precision as indicated by recovery values 95.2–103.2% and RSD% = 0.339–1.333%. Moreover, SCB and BP were used to reduce sodium ion concentrations from irrigation water for improvement of plants production.