Publication

Abstract : The current study proposes to address the growing concerns related to chromium discharges from metal plating facilities. For this purpose, acid treated Lantana camara is synthesized and continuous adsorption experiments were conducted on the fixed bed column set up. Some of the desirable attributes of the adsorbent are their favourable functional groups and the porous nature. These findings are reported in the FTIR and SEM analyses as well. In the column experiments run using laboratory simulated solution, considerably, the highest adsorption capacity of 362.8 mg/g is obtained. Since these results are favourable, column experiments have also been performed on composite electroplating effluents containing chromium ions. Notably, for composite electroplating effluents, maximum bed capacity of 50.05 mg/g is obtained. Another key point is the favourable breakthrough time reported for 100 mg/L chromium solution, which is 1260 min. Further, models such as Thomas, Yoon -Nelson, and Bed Depth Service Time (BDST) have also shown excellent fits. On the whole, the results revealed that the developed column is effective in handling effluent-containing chromium. Besides, this study also provides a better understanding of the adsorption process in composite industrial effluents.