Extraction of Heavy Metal in Tannery Effluent Using Abundant Agricultural Wastes

Abstract

Removal of chromium from tannery effluent was conducted successfully using untreated noncarbonated rice husk biomass, maximum removal was observed at pH 4, indicating that agricultural wastes could be economically used in purification of tannery effluent, adsorbent dosage has no significant impact on the removal of chromium from the solution since there was full adsorption in some instances and partial in others. Furthermore, natural pH tends to fluctuate between the range of 2-1.6, indicating that there is need for a naturally available base and a little knowledge that can be used to adjust pH level before addition of the untreated rice husk.