Use of Vegetal Residues in Treatment of Water Polluted with Heavy Metal

Packed bed adsorbents are widely used for water sanitation and pollution control. Adsorption systems are consolidated as one of the most efficient technologies applied when removing contaminants from wastewaters and industrial effluents polluted by organic and inorganic compounds to trace levels, providing a treated effluent of high quality. In this work, residual materials from plantain were studied for adsorption of Cr (VI) from aqueous solution. The adsorption capacity of plantain peels was studied at different operating conditions of temperature and size particle. The residual concentration of Cr (VI) was analyzed using Uv-Vis spectroscopy. Data analysis was performed using STATGRAPHICS CENTURION 18.1.02 through ANOVA, by comparing the P-value with the significance value using null hypothesis. The significance level was taken as 0.05. Bed adsorption capacity was estimated via numerical integration of the experimental breakthrough curve. Results showed that the temperature did not present significant effects on the adsorption efficiency; instead the size particle has a strong influence. The results confirmed that the high percentage of adsorption obtained for the Cr (VI) ions represent a high removal efficiency and affinity with the biomass. This study contributes to the application of intensified adsorption processes for facing water pollution problems caused by heavy metals in aqueous solution.