MERCURY REMOVAL BY ACTIVATED CARBON

T. MASMOUDI, S. GUERGAZI, S. ACHOUR

Abstract


In this study we experimentally analyzed the adsorption of mercury (Hg2+) in aqueous solution on powdered activated carbon. Various parameters were studied, such as the variation of the initial mercury (Hg2+) concentration in water, the variation of pH and the variation of the activated carbon mass. The various results obtained show that activated carbon could be the most suitable adsorbent for mercury retention, the adsorption kinetics of the Hg2+ ions evolved very rapidly over the agitation time and with a maximum amount of mercury adsorbed equal to 9.45 mg. g-1. It has been observed that mercury adsorption is a highly pH-dependent process; the higher the pH value of the solution, the more mercury (Hg2+) retention capacity occurs. The results also indicated that the increase in sorbent mass leads to an increase in removal efficiency due to the availability of adsorption sites as much as the active carbon mass is significant, but there has been a decrease in adsorption capacity per sorbent mass unit.

Keywords


Mercury, Adsorption, activated carbon, adsorption kinetics, pH, initial concentration

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