UTILIZATION OF NATURAL ADSORBENT MATERIALS FOR HEAVY METAL UPTAKE FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTE SLUDGE

Abstract

In Ho Chi Minh City, very large amount of industrial waste sludge contain many heavy metals. This is the potential hazardous waste, and therefore is subjected to treatment. The natural zeolite after preliminary treatment, aluminosilicate and crab shell have the ability to adsorb heavy metals that were used for metal uptake from metal contaminated sludge. Sludge eliminated from the central waste water treatment plant of Le Minh Xuan Industrial zone and from the Tan hoa-Lo gom canal in Ho Chi Minh City that were selected for this study. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of heavy metal uptake from industrial waste sludge with the use of natural zeolite. Obtained results indicated that the utilization of natural zeolite, a cheap and available adsorbent material, may be an effective treatment solution for heavy metals contaminated sludge. Further, the influences of some essential factors that can strongly affect the effectiveness of treatment process such as mixing ratio, processing time and moisture content of mixture, were also studied. It was shown that the effect of chrome removal could be 61.7% when the treatment process was performed with 10% zeolite mixed, after 1 hour mixing at 85% moisture content. Further, initial research achievements with crab shell shown that the effect of lead removal could 84.7% with 10% crab shell mixed, after 3 hour mixing at 81% moisture content.