Heavy metal ions removal from oil wastewater using highly enhanced Chitosan membrane technology: a response surface methodology study

Abstract

This paper investigates the removal of heavy metal ions from oily wastewater using enhanced Chitosan Membrane. Cellulose and gelatin have been used successfully to modify chitosan. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X - Ray Diffraction (XRD) were used to characterize chitosan. We looked at the impacts of pH solution and conductivity. To eliminate the heavy metals, adsorption study was conducted. Results showed removal percentages higher than 90% especially when the initial pH is 7.50 and the volume of Hexane is 12 mL. Conductivities of wastewater were positive and negative depending on whether the medium is acidic and basic respectively and values higher than +260 mV and lower than –340 mV were observed. Experiments were designed employing Central Composite Design (CCD) of the Response Surface Methodology to examine the effects of experimental conditions (RSM). R2 values for analysis of variances of Cu2+, Fe2+, and Pb2+ were all almost the same at 0.99. The quadratic models appeared significant and adequate in evaluating the experimental results. The differences in experimental and projected % Removal values were negligible for all models. The 3D response surface plots that resulted permitted paired analysis of variable impacts on each response model.

Keywords

• chitosan
• membrane
• removal
• ph