Elimination of mercury by adsorption onto activated carbon prepared from the biomass material

Following the previous work (Kaghazchi et al., 2010 [11]), dealing with applying a combination of two kinds of agricultural wastes to produce a new adsorbent, this study is dedicated to investigate the details of mercury adsorption process from aquatic medium by this adsorbent. So the Mix-ZC activated carbon (the sample prepared by chemical activation of a mixture of pistachio-nut shells and licorice residues impregnated with zinc chloride) was selected for doing a series of batch adsorption experiments on it. Equilibrium isotherms, such as Freundlich, Langmuir, Dubinin-Redushkevich and Temkin have been tested. Kinetic studies based on Lagergren first-order, pseudo-second-order rate expressions and intraparticle diffusion studies have been done. The mechanisms of mercury adsorption onto this adsorbent under the operating conditions were also studied. (C) 2011 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.