Study on Ferum (Fe) and Zinc (Zn) removal by using rice bran at Sungai Pelepah, Kota Tinggi, Johor

Abstract

Water pollution due to heavy metals is currently occurring at Sungai Pelepah, Kota Tinggi. Adsorption method is one of the most low cost effective methods to overcome this pollution problem compared to the other available methods for example, duckweed, orange peels, tea leaves, coconut shell and many more in heavy metals removal. In this study, rice bran was used as a low cost adsorbent. Rice bran is the outer layer of a grain of rice. Rice bran is an agricultural waste material generated in rice producing during milling process. It is an economical product and could easily to be obtained. Therefore, three objectives were selected for this study which is to determine the possibility of using rice bran as an adsorbent in heavy metals removal, to determine the characteristics of rice bran as an adsorbent and to identify the water quality of Sungai Pelepah after the treatment. The water samples were collected at Sungai Pelepah and the rice bran was collected at rice-milling factory. Three batch reactors consist of Reactor A (water sample with common activated carbon as adsorbent), Reactor B (water sample with rice bran as adsorbent) and Reactor C (control reactor). The batch reactors were conducted in the environmental laboratory, UTHM. As expected that rice bran could remove the heavy metals from the water sample as well as other adsorbents. The largest removal of Zinc (Zn) is 91.1% at 90 minutes and the largest Iron (Fe) removal is 73.0% with duration 90 minutes. As a conclusion, rice bran could be one of the low cost and effective adsorbent to be used in large amount operation of water treatment.