Environmental Engineering Department at the College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, held MSc thesis examination titled:
“Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of cadmium ions removal using date pit activated carbon from synthesized solutions“
By the student Haya Qahtan Khalaf and supervised by Dr. Hayder Muhsin Rasheed. The examination committee consisted of Assist. Prof. Dr. Jathwa Abdulkareem Ebrahim as Chairman, and the membership of Assist. Prof. Dr. Ghassan Hamad Abdullah and Dr. Hussein Jabbar Khadim. After conducting the public discussion and listening to the student’s defense, the thesis was accepted. It was summarized as follows:
Cadmium (Cd2+), a very hazardous heavy metal that is primarily released into the environment through industrial processes, has been shown to have negative impacts on both human beings and the environment. A cost-effective biomass material and nontoxic material date pits were chemically activated and using phosphoric acid. A novel, environmentally friendly adsorbent which is date pits activated carbon was analyzed, and successively used as bio-sorbent for Cd2+ adsorption from a simulated polluted solution. Raw date pits and prepared activated carbon are identified by their surface morphology and functional groups using a number of different of characterization techniques. Date pit activated carbon was characterized to show the active functional groups were added to the surface of solid adsorbent particles, creating more active sites, a higher adsorption surface area, and larger pores size. The prepared activated carbon had values of 1700 m2/g and 3.78 nm for its pore volume increase, respectively, and this indicated the greatest increase in surface area. The efficiency of cadmium ion removal on date pit activated carbon was affected by a number of variables. As the initial pH of the adsorbate raised to 6 and the initial concentration of cadmium ion decreased, the efficiency of cadmium ion adsorption on date pits activated carbon increased. Using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, the experimental data were validated. The Freundlich isotherm exhibited to be the most adaptable one with R2 = 0.9903 over the Langmuir R2 = 0.8971 at fixed temperature of 30 °C. For sorption favorability, the separation factor has been within the range of 0.001 to 0.003. Subsequently, the results demonstrated that the removal efficiency was adversely impacted by the rise in treatment temperature from 30 to 40 °C. However, the kinetics of the adsorption process revealed that it was pseudo-first order at various operating temperatures. According to thermodynamic studies, cadmium spontaneously and exothermally adsorbs on date pits activated carbon. A fixed bed column study was conducted with various experimental parameters such as inlet fluid velocity and bed depth for the removal of cadmium ions on date pits activated carbon with fixed sorbent inlet cadmium concentration, particle size, and temperature.
