A Hybrid Adsorption/Ultrafiltration Process for Heavy Metal Removal

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate a hybrid adsorption/ultrafiltration (UF) process for Cu(II) and Zn(II) (single metal ions) and Cu(II)+Zn(II) (binary metal ions) removal from aqueous solution using powder activated carbon (PAC). First, batch adsorption studies were performed to evaluate the influences of various experimental parameters like pH, initial heavy metal concentration and contact time. Afterwards, UF experiments were carried out at the laboratory scale to investigate permeate flux and removal rate at an operating pressure of 0.2 MPa. When both adsorption and filtration effects were considered, the removal rates were 18.33%, 57.13%, 100% and 22.6%, 42.0%, 75.4% (single system) and 25.0%, 56.6%, 98.8% and 6.2%, 7.6%, 11.6% (binary system) for Cu(II) and Zn(II) at different adsorbent doses (2, 5 and 10 g L-1), respectively. There was no significant difference between the removal rates of adsorption and adsorption/UF process. The permeate flux is not affected by the presence of PAC at adsorption /UF hybrid system for Cu(Il) removal. Consequently, the UF membrane low contributes to the increase of Cu(II) and Zn(II) removal rates for both the single and binary systems.