Philippine E-Journals

EFFECTIVENESS OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE IN THE BIOSORPTION OF LEAD (Pb^2+) IN WASTEWATER: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Mary Antoinette L. Ascutia | Renziell Gamboa | Ranielle R. Lampitoc | Nichole Narvas | Fatima O. Perez | Michael Anthony S. Solis | Louie Ian B. Mariano

 

Abstract:

Water pollution has been considered a major environmental problem faced by modern society. Presence of contaminants given off by industrial processes like toxic heavy metals have brought serious hazard to the environment and to human health as well. Adsorption, being identified as a principal method used to eliminate heavy metals from aqueous effluents, is considered as the best wastewater treatment method because of its universality while being an easy process. The present study examined the effectiveness of sugarcane bagasse as biosorbent for the removal of Pb^2+ ions in wastewater. Specifically, it identified the effects of varying initial concentration using equilibrium test. Results have shown that the amount of lead adsorbed increases with an increase in initial concentration. The observation is reasonable because  increasing the initial concentration of lead increases the gradient of concentration or the driving force of a diffusion of Pb^+2 to the mass of the biosorbent. Hence, the percent removal of heavy metals depends on the initial metal ions concentration, thus; decreases with an increase in initial metal ions concentration. Similarly, the difference in percentage removal of different heavy metal ions at the same initial metal ions concentration may be attributed to the difference in their chemical affinity and ion exchange capacity with respect to the chemical functional group on the surface of the adsorbent (Meena, Mishra, Rai, Rajagopal, & Nagar, 2005).