Investigation of Lead and Copper Removal from Synthetic Sewage Sludge of Sungun Copper Plant Using Hematite Adsorbent

There are several methods including physical, biological, and chemical procedures to remove heavy metals from water and wastewater. Adsorption is recognized as low cost and simple method with the high performance of heavy metals elimination from aqueous solution. Heavy metals removal by adsorption using iron oxides has always been a matter of interest due to the availability and low cost. In the present study, the feasibility of Pb and Cu removal from synthetic wastewater using hematite were investigated. Moreover, the effects of parameters including pH, dosage of adsorbent, dosage of contaminates, and removal time were studied. In this study, hematite was prepared using chemical precipitation method. The properties of the adsorbed compounds were determined using XRD analysis. Firstly, the adsorption process was investigated to remove lead and copper from simulated wastewater, then the attempt was to remove the mentioned metals from the original sewage sludge of Sungun factory. The optimal pH for the Pb and Cu removal was around 6. The maximum removal percent of Pb and Cu using hematite was determined as 94% and 90%, respectively. The adsorption process of Pb and Cu was in accordance with the pseudo-second order model. Further, the results revealed that the removal process of both cations were in accordance with the Langmuir isotherm model.