Evaluation of parameters affecting the rice husks performance on cyanide ion removal from wastewater

Abstract

This research is designed to investigate the Rice husk (RH) adsorption capability on cyanide ion (CN -) removal from wastewater. Several operating parameters were investigated in order to obtain the optimal removal efficiency using such agricultural by product media. The operation parameters were pH, initial concentration of the cyanide ion (Ci), adsorbent media height (Hm), Process time (tp), and Temperature (T) of the wastewater. The results showed that the removal efficiency could reach 97 % at the optimum operating conditons. Removal efficiency increased with increasing of adsorbent media height, increasing of pH also shows increasing in removal efficiency till pH 7 and then decreased slowly. Increasing temperature has a good effect on enhancing removal efficiency but such effect weakens when temperature exceeds 40oC. For process time the removal efficiency shows steep increasing rate till 40 min and then the rate slowed down. Removal efficiency decreased rapidly with increasing of initial concentration (Ci ≤ 20 mg/l), then it shows slower decreasing rate.