Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ASSESSMENT OF CHROMIUM BIOSORPTION BY SAW DUST FROM GROUNDWATER IN DELHI REGION

Alka Srivastava, Yamini Saini and Manoj Chandra Garg

Abstract

Water is a valuable and indispensable resource for life support. It finds use in many areas like water supply and sanitation, energy production, habitat for aquatic life, navigation, agriculture, etc. The groundwater in some pockets the Delhi region, India, has significant quality problems due to contamination with harmful elements such as fluoride, nitrate, heavy metals i.e., chromium, lead and cadmium, etc. The study aimed to evaluate the removal efficiency of hexavalent chromium from the synthetic solution using pre-treated sawdust as biosorbent. The individual effect of different operating parameters namely solution pH (2.0 to 12.0), biosorbent dosage (0.2 to 2.5g) adsorbate dosage (10 to 60 mg/l) on the biosorption process was evaluated. The biosorption process was found dependent on solution pH, contact time, biosorbent dose, adsorbate dose and temperature. The optimal conditions for the biosorption of 20 mg/l Chromium (VI) were found at 210, 2 g of biomass amount and 30 mins of equilibrium time. More than 99 % Cr (VI) was removed from all input parameters. The results indicate that sawdust, waste of wood is an attractive biosorbent for eliminating hexavalent chromium from the groundwater.