Investigating the efficiency of mango leaves & watermelon rind powders to remove Lead (ii) ions from industrial wastewater :

Abstract

The efficiency of the combination of mango leaves and watermelon rind powders as a low-cost adsorbent for the removal of Pb (II) ions from industrial waste-water at Uganda Batteries Limited was investigated in this research. The influences of adsorbent load, pH, contact time, adsorbent ratios and agitation rate on a sample were studied in batch experiments at room temperature. The findings showed that the lead up take increased within creasing adsorbent load agitation rate PH and contact time. The maximum uptake or Pb(I1) ions was at pH 5, contact time of 1hour, adsorbent load of 5grams with adsorbent ratio of MLP75:WMR25 and agitation rate of 200rpm. Parameter values were chosen on basis of efficiency and implied cost. These values yielded an average efficiency of 97.02% when used to adsorb lead from UBL waste water. The economic analysis showed that the combined adsorbent was, more cost effective to treat Leaded wastewater compared to poly acrylamide. The cost of treatment was reduced by 90%. The results showed that the combination of water melon rind and mango leaves has the potential to be applied as alternative low cost bio sorbent in the remediation of heavy metal contamination in waste water.