Packed bed column studies on recovery of Cerium(III) from electronic wastewater using biosorbents of animal and plant origin

Abstract

The recovery of Cerium(III) has been investigated in packed bed column using biowaste materials of animal (prawn carapace) and plant origin (corn style). Experiments have been conducted to study the effect of important parameters such as bed depth (4-12 cm) and flow rate (1-5 mL/min) and initial Ce(III) concentration (50-500 mg/L). Recovery of Ce(III) is found to be higher in case of prawn carapace (PC) as compared to corn style (CS) at initial metal concentration values of 400 mg/L (92.1%) and 350 mg/L (81.5%) respectively. The bed depth service time (BDST) model and Thomas model are used to analyze the column data in terms of Ce(III) uptake rate and column capacities. BDST model exhibit a good fit for both PC and CS and the adsorption capacity (N₀) estimated from this model is 282.0 mg/L for PC and 246.7 mg/L for CS respectively. The effect of co-ions on adsorption of Ce(III) is analyzed in binary and ternary systems using extended Langmuir and SRS equations. Regeneration studies suggest maximum reusability of biosorbents upto six cycles. Based on the Ce(III) uptake efficiency, PC and CS has been employed for the recovery of Ce(III) ions from electroplating wastewater. A maximum recovery of 80.1% Ce(III) is successfully achieved.