Large quantities of metals and other chemicals are emitted from different industries that result in contamination of water and
soils. In Pakistan, majority of the industries discharge wastewater without any treatment and such wastewater is considered
the main source of contaminants including several metals like Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd). The plant residue/bark was
used as metal sorbent for the removal of metals namely Pb and Cd from synthetic contaminated water in this study. Eucalyptus bark proved to be a cheap sorbent for certain contaminants in previous research studies. The different
concentration levels of both metals in solution were 5, 10 and 20 mg L
-1 with one gram bark (2-5 mm particle size) per
treatment. The highest Pb sorption capacity (almost 100%) was recorded at 10 mg Pb L
-1 while that of Cd increased linearly
with an increase in influent concentration. This study demonstrated that the application of Eucalyptus bark as sorbent for Pb
and Cd metals from contaminated water is cost- effective and environmental friendly technique. It donot involve any hazard
associated with its final disposal and economic crisis regarding production and processing as filter. There was an increase in
Pb and Cd sorption with progress in contact time (more during the first 80 mins). The Langmuir Isotherms fitted well to Cd
sorption data than Freundlich one.
Kiran Hina, Muhammad Arshad , Habiba Latif, Abdul Ghafoor , Hummera Rafique. (2017) SORPTION OF METALS BY TREE BARK FROM SYNTHETIC CONTAMINATED WATER, , Volume 54, Issue 2.
