Cyclic sorption and desorption of Cu(II) onto coconut shell and iron oxide coated sand

87Sorption is a viable treatment technology for copper-rich gold mine tailings wastewater. For continuous application, the sorbent should be regenerated with an appropriate desorbent, and reused. In this study, the sequential sorption/desorption characteristics of Cu(II) on coconut shell (CS) and iron oxide coated sand (IOCS) were determined. In batch assays, CS was found to have a Cu(II) uptake capacity of 0.46 mg g⁻¹ and yielded a 93% removal efficiency, while the IOCS had a Cu(II) uptake capacity and removal efficiency of 0.49 mg g⁻¹ and 98%, respectively. Desorption experiments indicated that HCl (0.05 M) was an efficient desorbent for the recovery of Cu(II) from CS, with an average desorption efficiency of 96% (sustained for eight sorption and desorption cycles). HCl (0.05 M) did not diminish the CS’s ability to sorb copper, even after eight sorption/desorption cycles, but completely deteriorated the iron oxide structure of the IOCS within six cycles. This study showed that CS and IOCS are both good sorbents for Cu(II); but cyclical sorption/desorption using 0.05 M HCl is only feasible with CS.