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Characterization of pit coal fly ash as sorbent for Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions

L.TOFAN1, C. PADURARU1, R. WENKERT2,*

Affiliation

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering and Management, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, 73 D.Mangeron Street, 700050 Iasi,
  2. Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Abstract

The potential of a fly ash resulted from the combustion of an energy pit coal in a thermal power plant in Iasi, Romania as low- cost sorbent for cadmium (II) ions removal from aqueous solutions has been tested in batch conditions as function of initial pH, metal ion concentration, contact time and temperature. The ability of the tested fly ash for the Cd(II) sorption exhibited a maximum at pH 4.5-5. The amount of Cd(II) retained on the tested pit coal fly ash increased with increasing metal ion concentration, but the Cd(II) sorption percentage decreased. The kinetics of cadmium removal by fly ash presented a shape characterized by a strong capacity of tested metal ion removal by fly ash during the first few minutes, following a slow increase until the state of equilibrium is reached. The Cd(II) sorption by the fly ash under investigation is very well described by both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The calculated values of the thermodynamic parameters showed that the process of Cd(II) ions sorption by fly ash is spontaneous, endothermic and of chemical nature..

Keywords

Sorption, Cadmium, Fly ash, Equilibrium.

Submitted at: March 25, 2013
Accepted at: July 11, 2013

Citation

L.TOFAN, C. PADURARU, R. WENKERT, Characterization of pit coal fly ash as sorbent for Cd(II) ions from aqueous solutions, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 15, Iss. 7-8, pp. 899-904 (2013)