RESUMO
Cr(VI) is considered to be the most hazardous and toxic oxidation state of chromium and hence the development of effective removal technologies, able to provide water with Cr(VI) below the drinking water limits (US EPA 100 µg/L, European Commission 50 µg/L, which will be reduced to 25 by 2036) is a very important issue in water treatment. This study aimed at examining the performance of activated carbon produced from coconut shells, modified by lanthanum chloride, for Cr(VI) removal from waters. The structure of the formed material (COC-AC-La) was characterized by the application of BET, FTIR and SEM techniques. The effect of the adsorbent's dosage, pH value, contact time, initial Cr(VI) concentration and water matrix was examined with respect to Cr(VI) removal. The results indicated that the maximum Cr(VI) removal was observed at pH 5; 4 h contact time and 0.2 g/L of adsorbent's dosage was adequate to reduce Cr(VI) from 100 µg/L to below 25 µg/L. Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic models fitted the experimental data sufficiently. The maximum adsorption capacity achieved was 6.3 µg/g at pH 5. At this pH value, the removal percentage of Cr(VI) reached 95% for an initial Cr(VI) concertation of 30 µg/L. At pH 7 the corresponding efficiency was roughly 60%, resulting in residual Cr(VI) concentrations below the anticipated drinking water limit of 25 µg/L of total chromium, when the initial Cr(VI) concentration was 50 µg/L. Consecutive adsorption and regeneration studies were conducted using 0.01 M of NaOH as an eluent to evaluate the reusability of the adsorbents, Results showed 20% decrease of adsorption capacity after 5 regeneration cycles of operation.
