Bioresource Technology 80 (2001) 87±89

Short communication

Removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution by adsorption onto

activated carbon
K. Selvi a,*, S. Pattabhi a, K. Kadirvelu b
a
Department of Environmental Sciences, PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore 641 014, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Department of Environmental Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore 641 046, Tamil Nadu, India
Received 3 October 2000; received in revised form 24 February 2001; accepted 6 March 2001

Abstract
Activated carbon (AC) prepared from coconut tree sawdust was used as an adsorbent for the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous
solution. Batch mode adsorption studies were carried out by varying agitation time, initial Cr(VI) concentration, carbon concen-
tration and pH. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms were applied to model the adsorption data. Adsorption capacity
was calculated from the Langmuir isotherm and was 3.46 mg/g at an initial pH of 3.0 for the particle size 125±250 lm. The ad-
sorption of Cr(VI) was pH dependent and maximum removal was observed in the acidic pH range. Desorption studies were carried
out using 0.01±1 M NaOH solutions. Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Adsorption; Cr(VI); Agricultural solid waste; Adsorption isotherms; Desorption

1. Introduction tonabe and Ogawa (1929). In recent years several in-

Chromium is a priority metal pollutant introduced
into the water bodies from many industrial processes
such as tanning, electroplating, metal processing, paint
manufacturing, steel fabrication and agricultural runo€.
Chromium is also used in explosives, ceramics and
photography. Chromium occurs in the aquatic envi-
ronment as both trivalent [Cr(III)] and hexavalent
[Cr(VI)] states. Hexavalent chromium, which is pri-
marily present in the form of chromate …CrO4 † and di-
chromate …Cr2 O7 †, possesses signi®cantly higher levels
of toxicity than the other valency states, (Sharma and
Forster, 1995). So, the removal of Cr(VI) from water
and wastewater is important to protect the environment.
The methods employed for the removal of Cr(VI)
from wastewater include reduction, precipitation, ion-
exchange and solvent extraction. However, these treat-
ment methods are not widely practised due to their high
cost and low feasibility for small-scale industries. Ad-
sorption is by far the most e€ective and widely used
technique for the removal of toxic heavy metals from
wastewater. The use of activated carbon (AC) for the
adsorption of heavy metals was ®rst proposed by Wa-
*
Corresponding author. Present address: c/o Mr. M. Krishnasamy,
134/22, Union Mill Road, Tirupur, Coimbatore (Dist) 641 601, India.
E-mail address: selvi_krishna2001@yahoo.com (K. Selvi).
vestigators have concentrated their work on low cost,
non-conventional adsorbents to achieve the economi-
cally feasible and e€ective treatment of wastewater
containing Cr(VI). Various industrial solid wastes, ag-
ricultural by-products and similar materials have ad-
sorption anity for heavy metals, (Pollard et al., 1992).
AC derived from coconut shells for Cr(VI) removal was
reported by Padaki Srinivas Rao et al. (1992). Alves et
al. (1993) have used Pinus sylvestris bark as an adsor-
bent for the removal of Cr(III) from aqueous solution.
Rice straw has been found to be an e€ective adsorbent
for the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution (Ali
and Deo, 1992). Studies have been reported on the use
of leaf mould (Sharma and Forster, 1994), AC from
olive stone and almond shell (Candela et al., 1995),
sphagnum moss peat (Sharma and Forster, 1993) and
pyrite ®nes (Zoboulis et al., 1995) for the removal of
Cr(VI). Mohammed Ajmal et al. (1998) have utilized
sawdust as adsorbent for the removal of Cu(II) from
wastewater. Kadirvelu et al. (2000) have recently re-
ported the utilization of coconut tree sawdust carbon for
the treatment of dyeing industry e‚uents.
The main objective of this work was to evaluate the
adsorption capacity of AC from sawdust, for the e€ec-
tive removal of Cr(VI) from solution by varying agita-
tion time, Cr(VI) concentration, carbon concentration,
pH and desorption.

0960-8524/01/$ - see front matter Ó 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 0 - 8 5 2 4 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 6 8 - 2
88 K. Selvi et al. / Bioresource Technology 80 (2001) 87±89
2. Methods
Coconut tree sawdust was collected from a saw mill
near Pollachi, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, India.
It was dried in sunlight. The dried sawdust was mixed in
a 1:0.5 (sawdust:H2 SO4 ) ratio with concentrated sul-
phuric acid. Then it was activated at 80°C for 12 h, in a
hot air oven. This carbonized material was washed with
double distilled water to remove the free acid. After
washing, the AC was soaked in 1% sodium bicarbonate
solution to remove the remaining acid. Then it was
washed with distilled water, until the pH of the AC
reached 5  0:5. Washed AC was dried at 105°C and
then sieved to the particle size 125±250 lm, which was
used in this work. The characteristics of the AC are
summarized in Table 1.
A stock hexavalent chromium solution (1000 mg/l)
was prepared in double distilled water, from potassium
dichromate. Working solutions were prepared by dilut-
ing the stock solution with distilled water.
3. Batch mode adsorption experiments
Batch mode adsorption studies were carried out by
taking 50 ml of the Cr(VI) solution of the desired con-
centration (5±20 mg/l) and desired weight of AC in 100
ml conical ¯asks. Then the conical ¯asks were agitated at
150 rpm using a mechanical shaker. pH was adjusted
using 0.1 N sulphuric acid or 0.1 N sodium hydroxide.
After the equilibration time of 180 min, the adsorbent
and adsorbate were separated by centrifugation at 3000
rpm and the supernatant was analysed colorimetrically
with 1,5 diphenyl carbazide at 540 nm (APHA, 1985).
The e€ect of AC dosage (50±750 mg/50 ml) was studied
on initial concentrations of 5, 10, 15 and 20 mg/l for a
contact time of 180 min. E€ect of pH on Cr(VI) removal
was studied using 200 mg of AC and Cr(VI) concentra-
tion of 10 mg/l. Desorption studies were carried out as
follows. The metal loaded AC was separated by centrif-
Table 1
Characteristics of AC
Parameters Value
Apparent density (g/ml) 1.15
Ash content (%) 9.721
pH (1% solution) 2.95
Moisture content (%) 0.84
Iron content (mg/g) 0.08
Surface area …m2 =g† 486
Water soluble matter (%) 1.82
Acid soluble matter (%) 8.07
Decolourizing power (mg/g) 27.0
Particle size …lm) 125±250
Calcium (mg/g) 90.0
Sodium (mg/g) 31.0
Potassium (mg/g) 3.0
ugation and the supernatant was drained out. The ad-
sorbent was given a gentle wash with water to remove
any unadsorbed Cr(VI). 50 ml of 0.01±1 M sodium hy-
droxide solution was added to the chromium adsorbed
AC and agitated for 180 min. The desorbed Cr(VI) in the
solution was separated and analysed as before.
All the experiments were carried out in duplicate and
mean values are reported. The maximum deviation was
3%.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. E€ect of contact time and initial metal ion concen-
tration
The uptake of Cr(VI) from solution by AC increased
with time and attained equilibrium in 180 min for all the
concentrations studied. The equilibrium time was inde-
pendent of initial Cr(VI) concentration. Increase in ini-
tial Cr(VI) concentration decreased the percent
adsorption.
The kad values at di€erent initial Cr(VI) concentration
were calculated from the slopes of Lagergren plots and
were 1:52  10 2 , 1:01  10 2 , 1:93  10 2 and
1:40  10 2 min 1 for initial Cr(VI) concentrations of 5,
10, 15 and 20 mg/l, respectively. Lee et al. (1995) have
reported kad values of 5:87  10 3 , 4:65  10 3 and
4:58  10 3 min 1 for copper coated moss for initial
Cr(VI) concentrations of 5, 10 and 20 mg/l, respectively.
4.2. E€ect of AC dosage on Cr(VI) adsorption
The percent adsorption increased with increase in AC
dosage for all the concentrations studied. The percent
removal decreased from 98.84 to 84.06 with increase in
Cr(VI) concentration from 5 to 20 mg/l, respectively.
4.3. Adsorption isotherms
In order to model the adsorption behaviour and
calculate the adsorption capacity of AC, adsorption
isotherms were studied. Both Langmuir and Freundlich
isotherms were employed for Cr(VI) adsorption. Ad-
sorption followed both isotherms.
The adsorption capacity …Q0 † and energy of adsorp-
tion (b) were calculated from the slope and intercept of
the Langmuir plot and found to be 3.46 mg/g and 0.47 l/
mg, respectively. The equilibrium parameter RL values
between 0 and 1 for all the concentrations of Cr(VI),
indicating favourable adsorption.
The Freundlich isotherm was also used to explain
observed phenomena. Kf and `n' calculated from the
intercept and slope of the plots were 1.19 and 2.99, re-
spectively. Mckay et al. (1980) reported that an n value
of range 2±10 indicates favourable adsorption. The n
 K. Selvi et al. / Bioresource Technology 80 (2001) 87±89
value of 2.99 for Cr(VI) suggests that the adsorbent is
e€ective for Cr(VI) adsorption.
4.4. E€ect of pH on Cr(VI) removal
In highly acidic media, the adsorbent surfaces might
be highly protonated and favour the uptake of Cr(VI) in
the anionic form, HCrO4 (Padaki Srinivas Rao et al.,
1992). With increase in the pH, from 4.0 to 11.0, the
degree of protonation of the surface reduced gradually
and hence decreased adsorption was noticed. The
highest adsorption occurred at pH 3.0 and was due to
the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III). A similar trend has
been observed for the removal of Cr(VI) by leaf mould
(Sharma and Forster, 1994), Fe(III)/Cr(III) hydroxide
(Namasivaysam and Ranganathan, 1993), Fe(III) hy-
droxide (Aoki and Munemori, 1982) and ¯y ash (Vir-
araghavan and Rao, 1991).
4.5. Desorption of Cr(VI)
Desorption studies help to elucidate the mechanism
of adsorption and recover the precious metals from the
metal-loaded adsorbent. The percent of Cr(VI) desorp-
tion increased with increase in sodium hydroxide con-
centration from 0.01 to 0.1 M. pH e€ect and desorption
studies indicated that ion-exchange was not predomi-
nant in the adsorption process. The other adsorption
mechanism, namely chemisorption, seemed to be the
major mode of adsorption.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. P. Sampath Kumar, Principal
and Prof. D.K.P Varatharajan, Secretary, PSG College
of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, for providing the fa-
cilities to carry out this work successfully.
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