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abstract 377

Wastewater treatment by adsorption onto Carpobrotus edulis used as natural adsorbent

Author(s): Mohamed Chiban (1)*, Amina Soudani (1), Hassan Eddaoudi(1), Fouad Sinan(1), Mechel Persin(2)
(1): Equipe Matériaux, Photocatalyse et Environnement, Faculté des Sciences d’Agadir, BP. 8106 Cité Dakhla, Maroc (2): Institut Européen des Membranes, CRNS, N°5635, 1919 Route Mende, 34293 –Montpellier, France * Corresponding author. Tel: + 21248220957, Fax

Keyword(s): Carpobrotus edulis, Adsorption, Wastewater treatment, heavy metals.

Article:

Poster:

Session: Poster session 1

AbstractSeveral industrial wastewater

streams may contain heavy metals such as Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, etc. including the waste liquids generated by metal

finishing or the mineral processing industries. The toxic metals must be effectively treated/removed from the

wastewaters. If the wastewaters were discharged directly into natural waters, it will constitute a great risk for the

aquatic ecosystem, whilst the direct discharge into the sewerage system may affect negatively the subsequent

biological wastewater treatment. In recent years, the removal of heavy metal from sewage, industrial and

miningwaste effluents has been widely studied. Their presence in streams and lakes has been responsible for several

types of health problems in animals, plants and human beings. Among the many methods available to reduce heavy

metal concentration from wastewater, the most common ones are chemical precipitation, ion-exchange, and reverse

osmosis. Most of these methods suffer from some drawbacks such as high capital and operational costs, incomplete

metal removal, low selectivity, high energy requirements. The aim of the present paper is to study the efficiency of a

new process for wastewater treatment by adsorption onto inert solid biomaterials (ISBM) using the batch

equilibration technique. These inert solid biomaterials are ground dried plants obtained from Carpobrotus edulis

plant. The results show that the inert solid biomaterials present a good retention of heavy metals and phosphate ions

from real wastewater. This retention increased with increasing of contact time. The removal percentage of heavy

metals from industrial wastewater by Carpobrotus edulis was 94 % for Cd, 91 % for Cu, 99 % for Pb and 98% for

Zn. The maximum adsorption capacity was depending on the type of ions (atomic weight, ionic radius and

electronegativity). The results indicate that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) values decrease after contact with

ISBM. The results obtained are compared with those obtained from -i) distilled water and -ii) from laboratory

solutions with various concentrations.
These results indicate that the inert solid biomaterials could be used for

removal of heavy metals and pollutant minerals from wastewater.

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Wastewater treatment by adsorption onto Carpobrotus edulis used as natural adsorbent