Copper and lead ion removal from wastewater using fava d'anta fodder (Dimorphandra gardneriana Tulasne)

The contamination of bodies of water by potentially hazardous elements has in recent decades become an environmental problem that poses serious risks to humans, fauna, flora and microbiota, compromising the quality of life of the present ecosystem. Therefore, effluents must be properly treated in a legally acceptable manner before their disposal in the environment. With this in mind, adsorption presents itself as an inexpensive efficient technique for the removal of potentially hazardous elements from effluents with excellent adsorption capacities when natural adsorbents are used. In this study, fava d'anta fodder was used in its crude and alkalinized form to remove Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions. Equilibrium studies were carried out using adsorption isotherms in batch systems with mono- and multi-elementary systems containing the two ions. The Langmuir and Freundlich models were applied to the isotherm studies, with the ions being better suited to the Langmuir model, with maximum adsorption capacities of 24.45 mg g^-1 and 68.49 mg g^-1 (crude form) and 11.12 mg g^-1 and 35.34 mg g^-1 (alkalinized form) in the mono-elementary system for Cu(II) and Pb(II) ions, respectively.