Development of Adsorbent from Banana Peel for Wastewater Treatment
This study investigated the development and application of banana peel for the remediation of heavy metals (Pb, Zn and Cr). Batch experimental processes as well as conditions that might influence the sorption of the metals were investigated. These conditions include effects of pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, and particle size. The applicability of the sorption process was tested on wastewater. The adsorbent activated with 0.5 M H2SO4 showed the highest percentage removal of chromium ion (88.9 %) at a pH of 6. It has been found that particle size has no effect on the removal of zinc ion and it has also been found that the removal efficiency of lead and chromium ion decreased with increase in contact time and particle size. Also, it can be seen from the results that untreated banana peel waste increases the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values of wastewater. The results from the optimized method revealed the applicability of the method to environmental water samples. This study therefore confirms that banana peel is a promising adsorbent for the removal of chromium from industrial effluent.