Simultaneous adsorption of divalent and trivalent metal cations by iron oxide-coated gravel

Reducing heavy metal concentrations to allowable levels in landfill leachate before discharge is an extremely important process to prevent environmental pollution. Iron oxide-coated gravel was used in order to remove Cd(II), Cu(II), Pb(II), Fe(III) and Al(III) simultaneously in high-strength synthetic leachate samples. Batch and column studies were performed to determine the kinetics and mechanism of adsorption process. The experimental data obtained from batch study satisfactorily fitted to the Freundlich model indicating surface heterogeneity and multilayer adsorption process. The data obtained from kinetic studies followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics indicating adsorption governed by chemisorption. The metal adsorption order observed in the batch study was Pb(II)(99.72%) ≈ Cu(II)(99.61%) ≈ Cd(II)(99.51%) ≈ Fe(III)(99.3%) > Al(III)(93.3%) at pH 7. Average metal removals in the fixed-bed column were found to be 96.5% for Cu(II), 94.8% for Pb(II), 90% for Cd(II), 84% for Fe(III) and 67% for Al(III). Iron oxide-coated gravel column adsorption capacity ranged from 0.56 to 66.82 mg/g. Recovery efficiency of adsorbed metals via desorption was between 5–97.75% in first cycle and 2–80.3% in second cycle.