Lateritic soil for removal of zinc in wastewater

Abstract

Zinc is some of environmental pollutants and is toxic even at very low concentrations. Domestic and industrial discharges are probably the two most important sources for zinc in the water environment. There is still facing problems of heavy metal discharges into natural ecosystems by factories and household without any prior treatment. The toxic heavy metals are entering the food chain through drinking water, agriculture and fisheries activities and therefore endangering human life. The general objective of this study is to investigate on the removal of Zn (II) from the wastewater using lateritic soil. The investigation had been conducted based on the heavy metals commonly found in polluted industrial wastewater which is Zn (II).Different parameters were studied in this research such as effects of pH, dosage of the lateritic soil, time of reaction needed between Zinc and lateritic soil and the concentration of the Zn molarity. Based on the experiment, the removal of Zinc is increased with the increment of time and if the solution of ZnSO4 is more to acidic pH. Besides that, the removal of zinc increase when the concentration of stock solution (ZnSO4) is increased.However, the removal of Zinc is decreased with higher dosage of lateritic soil.