Packed-bed removal of copper and zinc ions using chemically-treated chicken feathers

In this work, the sorption of copper by chemically treated chicken feathers was tested via packed-bed column. Chicken feathers were selected as adsorbent based on its high availability as environmental waste. The alkaline-treated chicken feathers column showed good sorption capacity toward copper and zinc ions. It was proved that an increase in metal concentration or flow rate of the influent solution shortens the break-through time. The break-through time increased with the bed depth. The break-through time occurred earlier when zinc was passed through the column rather than copper, but the bed capacity was higher for the later than for the former. The key process design parameters, which could serve as a basis for sorption process scale up, were calculated by applying the Bed-Depth-Service-Time (BDST) model to the experimental data.