ABSTRACT
Industrial wastewater is one of the most important pollutant sources for environmental water pollution. There are many types of industrial wastewater based on different contaminants and industries; each sector produces its own combination of pollutants. This chapter examines the effectiveness of activated charcoal and treated rice husk (TRH) in removing chromium ions from synthetic wastewaters using batch and fixed-bed column adsorption techniques. Rice husk is a good adsorbent as it is insoluble in water, has high mechanical strength, has good chemical stability and possesses a granular structure. Adsorption isotherm is an empirical relationship used to predict how much solute can be adsorbed by TRH. To establish an appropriate contact time between the TRH and metal ion solution, adsorption capacities were measured as function of time. The accessibility and availability of adsorption sites are controlled by adsorbent dosage. Various adsorption kinetics models have been used to describe the adsorption of metal ions.
