KINETICS, THERMODYNAMIC AND ISOTHERMS MODELING OF THE EQUILIBRIUM SORPTION OF Pb²⁺, Ni²⁺ AND Cd²⁺ INTO TIGER NUT CHAFF (CYPERUS ESCULENTUS) FROM MODEL WASTEWATER

INTRODUCTION:

Heavy metals have harmful effects on human health, and exposure to these metals has been on the increase and contamination of water by toxic metals is an environmental concern and hundreds of millions of people are being affected around the world.[1]. The discharge of these pollutants into the environment, especial­ly water bodies has been on the rising due to urbanization and industrialization such as pharmaceutical, textile, paints production, metal finishing, mining, battery manufac­turing and electroplating respectively. Large number of waste produce from these industries contains heavy metals which is the cause of environmental pollution [2].

There are various methods for heavy metal removal from aqueous effluents, such as electroplating, ion exchange, membrane separation, adsorption, etc. Among all the aforementioned techniques, adsorption is the most simple, efficient, and economically affordable. Adsorption emerged to be good for the treatment of effluents. The first thing for an efficient adsorption process is the search for a low-cost adsorbent with high adsorption capacity and secondly, its biodegradability.