Adaptability of Teff husk activated carbon for removal of hexavalent chromium from tannery wastewater at optimized process condition

Abstract

Abstract Tanneries are the major contributors to chromium pollution of the environment. Exposure to chromium (VI) can cause cancer, brain damage, central nervous dysfunction, blood composition damage; damage of lungs, kidneys, liver, and other vital organs. Although various studies have been done on the removal of Cr (VI) from synthetic wastewater, there is a lack of study in the adaptability of these methods in the treatment of real wastewater and expanding to the industrial application level. Therefore, the present study was aimed to examine the effectiveness of Teff husk activated carbon for the removal of Cr (VI) from tannery wastewater at optimized process conditions. The laboratory-based study was conducted to determine the Cr (VI) removal efficiency of Teff husk activated carbon from tannery wastewater. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical software. A paired sample t test was also used to test the presence of a significant difference in the mean concentration of Cr (VI) before and after treatment of the wastewater with Teff husk activated carbon. Then p value < 0.05 was considered as a cutoff point for the presence of a mean significant difference. The removal efficiency was found to be 89.5%. There was a significant difference in the mean concentration of Cr (VI) before and after treatment with Teff husk activated carbon with a = 956.899 and p value < 0.001. This implies the Teff husk activated carbon was an efficient adsorbent for removal of hexavalent chromium from real wastewater. Column adsorption needs to be studied in the future.

Keywords

• Tannery
• Wastewater
• Chromium (VI)
• Teff husk activated carbon