Continuous Sorption of Chromium Ions from Simulated Effluents using Citric Acid Modified Sweet Potato Peels

Abstract

Adsorptive removal of chromium ion in aqueous medium using activated sweet potato peel (SPP) was studied in a laboratory-scale fixed bed column. Specifically, the effect of process parameters such as bed depth, flowrate and chromium ion concentration in aqueous solution, on the adsorption efficiency of the acid modified sweet potato peel was examined. Column adsorption analysis showed that at the flow rate of 0.5 cm3/min, bed height of 6 cm and column influent concentration of 30 mg/dm3, the optimum chromium (VI) ion removal of 87.5% was attained with the equilibrium adsorption capacity of 2.4548 mg/g. Continuous adsorption models such as Yoon-Nelson, Adam-Bohart and the Bed-Depth Service Time (BDST) model, were used to analyse the experimental data and based on correlation coefficient, BDST model best aligned with the obtained experimental data with correlation coefficient, R2, value of 96.43%. The bed capacity, No, and the rate constant, Ka, were calculated as 4.259 mg/dm3 and 0.01045 L/mgmin respectively at optimum column conditions. Results confirmed that acid modified SPP can be used to remove or reduce concentrations of Cr (VI) ions to allowable limits before disposal into water bodies.