Treatment of effluent from fertilizer industry by adsorption on willow sawdust-removal of Ni(II) and Cd(II) from the effluent

Sawdust of willow has been investigated as an adsorbent for the removal of Ni(II), and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solution. Since willow tree is widely grown in almost all parts of Kashmir, it can be a common most easily available, sustainable, low cost adsorbent for the treatment of wastewaters in this part of the world where growing industrialization is affecting water quality like elsewhere in the world. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the potential of sawdust of willow tree as an adsorbent for the removal of Ni(II) and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solution as a first step. Batch experiments were conducted to study the effect of some parameters such as contact time, initial concentration of metal ions, solution pH and temperature. Langmuir and Freundlich models were employed for the mechanistic analysis of experimental data obtained. Results reveal that in our system adsorption follows the Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity of Ni(II) and Cd(II) were found to be 7.98 and 7.11 mg/g respectively at optimum conditions. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models were employed for kinetic analysis of adsorption process. The adsorption process follows pseudo-second-order kinetics. The efficacy of the adsorbent in the treatment of effluent from fertilizer factory has been investigated and the results have been found encouraging.