The Continuous Study of Adsorption of Pb (II) on Modified Maize Husk in a Laboratory Column

Abstract

In this study, adsorption of Pb (II) on modified maize husk was carried out on a laboratory scale column of internal diameter 2.76 cm and length of 30cm. the effect of be depth, flow rate, and initial metal ion concentration was varied for optimum column efficiency. The characterization of the maize husk was carried out using SEM and FT-IR. From the result; SEM indicated appreciable pores before sorption and parked pores after sorption while functional groups like the amides, carboxyl and hydroxyls helped in the adsorption process. The column efficiency revealed at flow rate of (6, 10 and 20 mg/L), 94.9% of Pb (II) was removed with adsorption capacity of 10.74 mg/ L achieved. Adsorption isotherms showed that the Adams-Bohart model described the kinetics of the process and revealed good correlation with the experimental work.