Study of the Adsorption Kinetics of Iron Ion from Wastewater using Banana Peel

There is a growing concern for the effective treatment of wastewater contaminated with heavy metal. Most of the heavy metals are highly toxic even in trace concentration [1]. Most of the common methods used to remove heavy metals from wastewater are chemical reduction followed by precipitation, membrane filtration, ion-exchange and adsorption onto activated carbon. Among these, adsorption by activated carbon has been used as an effective method to remove these heavy metals in trace concentration. However, the activated carbon is expensive and requires chelating agents to enhance its performance, thereby increasing treatment cost. For this reason, it is desirable to develop low cost and efficient adsorbent for removal of heavy metals from wastewater. Recently, adsorptions of metals by using bio-adsorbents are in progress [2, 3]. Different types of industrial and agricultural bio-wastes are investigated as bio-adsorbent such as sugarcane bagasse [4], rice husk [5], olive stone [6], clay minerals [7-9], used tea leaves [10], wheat straw [11], chitin and chitosan [12]. They are easily available, economically acceptable and chemically less polluting substances often with high affinity and binding capacity of metals. In adsorption process, metal ions from solution are transported to the surface of the adsorbent and then attached due to the physical and chemical interaction between the metal ions and the functional groups on the surface of the adsorbent [13-19].