Heavy metal- Wastewater Treatment from Galvanization Industry Using Nanoadsorbent

Abstract

Galvanization industry generates wastewater that is mainly contaminated with heavy metals including (Fe, Cu, Mn, Pb, Cd, Zn, Co, Cr, Mg, Ni). In Palestine the wastewater from this industry is usually discharged into the empty land or sewer system without any treatment. This study aim at investigating the use of magnetic nanoadsorbent for the removal of heavy metals particularly Zn from the wastewater. Samples of wastewater were collected from different rinsing tanks in galvanization process at different time intervals, and their properties including PH, E.C, TDS, Turbidity, and concentration of elements were measured. The result showed that the wastewater is highly contaminant with heavy metals. The characteristic test of wastewater were varied according to the sequence of galvanization process; samples collected from the rinsing tank after acidic treatment has the lowest pH and highest turbidity, whereas samples collected from rinsing tank after fluxing tank has the highest pH and Zn concentration. Batch adsorption experiments were performed for Zn removal from real samples and model solutions (ZnCL2, ICP standard solution, and Zn(NO3)2) by using iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles as adsorbent. Effects of initial concentration and pH on the adsorption were investigated using Inductively Coupled Plasma device (ICP). The result was obtained using model solutions (ZnCl2 and Zn(NO3)2) were not reproducible to the metal solution instability. Where the results obtained from the adsorption on real samples were highly reproducible and a Zn removed up to 93% was achieved in less than ten minutes of adsorption. The adsorption process of wastewater favorable at high pH value and the optimum value was 10. The main conclusion of the present study is that galvanization wastewater industry should be property treatment before being discharge and adsorption method with nanoparticles could be effectively used for removal of heavy metals for wastewater.