Stems and their ashes of some herbal plants as adsorbents in the removal of chromium (VI) from waste waters.

ABSTRACT

A thorough investigation is made to explore the surface sorption abilities of powders of stems and their ashes of some herbal plants in controlling the Chromium (VI) pollution in waste waters. It is found that the powders of stems and their ashes of Achyranthes aspera, Mentha, Emblica officinalis, Hybiscus roja sinensis, Ocimum sanctum and Psidium guajava have strong affinity towards Chromate at low pH values. % of removal of Chromate is found to be pH sensitive and also depends on sorption concentration and time of equilibration. The conditions for the maximum extraction of Chromate at minimum dosage of sorbent and equilibration time have been optimized. More than 90.0% of removal of Chromate is found. Sorbent concentrations and time needed for the maximum removal of Chromate is less for the ashes of stems than with the raw stem powders. The presence of ten fold excesses of Cations Ca2+, Mg2+ , Cu2, Zn2+ and Ni2 + and anions like NO3 - ,Chloride, Fluoride and Carbonate have marginally effected the % removal of Chromium (VI) while Sulphate and Phosphate showed some interference with some sorbents but even with them, the % of extractability never comes down to 71.0%. The adoptability of the methodologies developed in this work are tested with respect to diverse waste water samples collected from industrial effluents and in natural lakes and found to be remarkably successful.