Waste materials such as coal fly ash generated from power plant in India and environmental threat causing plant such as Prosopis juliflora has been converted into a cheap potential adsorbent. This has been characterized and utilized for the removal of chromium, lead, zinc and copper from synthetic and actual wastewater. The sorption efficiency decreases with increase in pH. Adsorption of chromium, lead, copper and zinc on Coal Fly ash (CFA) and Prosopis Juliflora Carbon (PJC) individually and 50:50 mixture of CFA and PJC follows the Freundlich adsorption isotherm and these have been used to obtain the thermodynamic parameters of the process. The sorption capacity of these adsorbents for the heavy metal removal is found to be better alternative comparable to other low cost adsorbents.
Key words: Adsorption, heavy metal, fly ash, effluent treatment
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