copper removal from synthetic wastewater

Heavy metals are among the most toxic substances to the

environment. A lot of technique is developed to treat heavy metals including adsorption. The objective of the present work is to investigate the possibility of removing copper from aqueous solution under various operating conditions and to find the highest possible removal by using magnetic nanoparticles Fe2O3. The method is fast, simple, cheap, effective and safe for treatment of copper polluted waters. The range of the studied parameters are: pH 3-9, adsorbent dose (iron oxide nanoparticles10-70 mg), contact time (CT) 5-60 min, magnetic field strength (MFS) 1.5-5.5, and initial metal concentration(C0) 2-8 mg/L. Batch experiments were conducted using jar test apparatus in order to obtain the best conditions for Cu+2 removal.
The results indicated that the highest removal efficiency for copper is 82.35% under the following operating conditions: pH 5, CT 20 min, Dose 50 mg, MFS 3 T, and Cu+2 2 mg/l. It is found that the Langmuir adsorption model fairly fit the experimental data. The removal efficiency increases with the increase of adsorbent dose, the contact time, magnetic field strength while it decreases with the increase of initial Cu+2 concentration. It is found that the adsorption capacity increases with the increase of cu initial concentration and contact time while it decreases with the increase of adsorbent dose.