Removal of As (III) ion using Syzygium cumini seeds (SCS) biomass from ground water and waste water

Jyoti Shah, Indu Sharma, Om Silakari, Rajeev Sharma

Arsenic (As) contamination in drinking water is a serious environmental and health problem all over the India. Since biosorption is a less consuming, cheap and easy handling technique to remove As from ground water and waste water, so in present work biosorptive behaviour of Syzygium cumini seeds (SCS) biomass in a batch system has been investigated successfully to remove As (III) from ground water and waste water. Maximum percent removal of 69.30 % of As (III) was achieved at pH - 5, adsorbent dose of 0.3 gm, As (III) concentration of 0.2 mg/l, time of 135 minutes, temperature of 40˚Ϲ and agitation speed of 180 rpm. Percent removal after chemical pretreatment was in the order of FeCl3 (75.75) > NaOH (73.70) > HCHO (67.25) > H2SO4 (69.35) > HCl (64.40). Fourier Transmission Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) studies of SCS was done before and after biosorption process to establish the functional groups responsible for As (III) adsorption. In case of ground water the % removal by native, FeCl3, and NaOH pretreated biomass was 83.6 %, 88 % and 86 % respectively, while in case of waste water the % removal was 75.26 %, 79.47 %, and 79.47 % respectively. It is concluded that SCS biomass can be effectively used to remove As (III) ion from aqueous solution. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of SCS biomass before and after biosorption was also done to understand the morphological changes in biomass.