Phytosorption of some heavy metals from industrial wastewater using cabbage peels and banana trunk

Study aims to evaluate the potential of agrowaste, specifically cabbagepeels and bananatrunks, as adsorbents for removing heavy metals from wastewater. Atomic absorption spectroscopy(AAS) was employed to measure the concentrations of these metal ions in two wastewater samples(WW1 and WW2). Surface-morphology and elemental-composition of the cabbagepeels and bananatrunks were analyzed using scanning-electronmicroscopy(SEM) and energy-dispersiveX-ray-spectroscopy(EDX). Study examined the effects of pH, contact time, and adsorbent dosage on adsorption process. The adsorption-isotherms for the removal of heavy metals were determined. Zinc, copper, iron, and cadmium were detected in the wastewater samples. Effect of pH on zinc removal showed the highest removal at 39.42% at pH2 for WW1 and 16.2% at pH2 for WW2, for cadmium, the highest removal was 24.7% at pH2 for WW1 and 46.6% at pH2 for WW2. Iron removal was 15.6% at pH6 for WW1 and 41.5% at pH6 for WW2. Copper removal reached 39.3% at pH4 for WW1 and 43.6% at pH6 for WW2. The effect of adsorbent dosage for iron, the maximum removal was 28.42% at 1g of adsorbent for WW1 and 24.98% at 4g for WW2. For cadmium, the highest removal was 30.5% at 1g for WW1 and 20.43% at 1g for WW2. For zinc, the maximum removal was 40.08% at 4g for WW1 and 16.56% at 2g for WW2. For copper, the highest removal was 28.86% at 2g for WW1 and 38.56% at 2g for WW2. Contact time, the maximum removal of iron was 16.65% after 100minutes for WW1 and 23.01% for WW2. For cadmium, the highest removal was 14.92% after 20minutes for WW1 and 16.4% for WW2. Zinc removal reached 14.92% after 20minutes for WW1 and 3.32% for WW2. For copper, the maximum removal was 24.28% after 100minutes for WW1 and 33.42% for WW2. The adsorption equilibrium data for the metal-ions were best fitted with the Freundlich-isotherm model. Cabbagepeels and bananatrunk has considerable potential as low-cost adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater.