Equilibrium and Kinetic Study on BiosorptionOf Chromium Using Tamarindus Indica as a Biosorbent

Abstract

The contamination of aquatic and ecosystem is taking place because of toxic metals releasing from chemical process industries without prior treatment of effluent. There could be a great need of research on withdrawal of poisonous metal ions from effluents releasing from various industries. The heavy metal chromium is one among them. Batch biosorption procedure was adapted to find the potential of the agricultural waste biomaterial Tamarind tree bark (Tamarindus Indica) for biosorption of chromium. The process parameters such as agitation time, biomass quantity, metal ion concentration and pH were estimated on removal of Chromium by tamarindus indica biosorbent. The process parameters evaluated are agitation time-40minutes, biomass dose-1.6gm, metal ion concentration-10mg/l and pH-6. The equilibrium data has been analysed with Freundlich and Langmuir models. The given data was correlated well to Langmuir model than Freundlich. The adsorption kinetics were also calculated and R² value was found to be 0.993. The kinetic data was best followed to pseudo second order kinetics. The chromium removal percentage was determined 87.23% using tamarindus indica. The results revealed the agricultural waste material of tamarind tree bark is suitable for biosorption of chromium from waste water.