ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Evaluation of Lead (II) Removal from Wastewater
Using Banana Peels: Optimization Study
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1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
2
Institute of Systems Science, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
3
Department of Chemical Engineering, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Umlazi, Durban, South Africa
Submission date: 2020-03-19
Final revision date: 2020-05-12
Acceptance date: 2020-05-14
Online publication date: 2020-11-27
Publication date: 2021-02-05
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(2):1487-1496
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ABSTRACT
The response surface methodology was used to investigate the removal of Pb (II) from an aqueous
solution using banana peel with varying operating parameters in a batch mode. The central composite
design was used to study the interactive effects of the operating parameters (initial concentration, pH of
the solution, adsorbent dosage and the particle size). The banana peel was characterized by FTIR which
showed the functional groups, while SEM and EDS were used to study morphology and elemental
composition. The optimum removal of Pb(II) was 98.146 % at initial concentration 100 mg/L, pH 5,
adsorbent dosage 0.55 g and particle size 75 μm. The deviation between the experimental and the model
predicted percentage removal was 5.17 %. The analysis of variance showed that the regression model
was significant with a low probability and the correlation coefficient R2 value of 0.9153. The results
showed that the biosorption of Pb(II) was highly influenced by the pH and the adsorbent dosage, while
the particle size had little effect on the biosorption process.