ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Removal of Copper Using Clay Admixed
with Quarry Fines as Landfill Liners
Rajagopalan Varadarajan1, G.Venkatesan2,
G. Swaminathan3
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1Research Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, University College of Engineering (BIT Campus),
Anna University, Tiruchirappalli, India
2Department of Civil Engineering, University College of Engineering, (BIT Campus),
Anna University, Tiruchirappalli, India
3Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology,
Tiruchirappalli, India
Submission date: 2015-03-06
Final revision date: 2015-09-22
Acceptance date: 2015-09-22
Publication date: 2016-01-25
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(1):377-384
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ABSTRACT
The liners in a sanitary landfill play a significant role in reducing the leachate migration and minimizing
groundwater pollution. This research investigated a method for the removal of copper ions from aqueous
solutions using natural clay admixed with quarry fines as a liner material in landfills. Batch experiments were
carried out under different conditions such as pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, and metal concentration.
The results showed that the metal ions uptake by clay (admixed with quarry fines) was rapid at from 3 to
15 minutes, after which adsorption of metal ions remains constant. The equilibrium was achieved
practically in 15 min with a removal percentage of copper equal to 94.5%. The removal of copper
increased when the pH increased from 2 to 5.6. At pH values higher than 5.6, a reduction in the removal
efficiency was observed. The experimental results were mathematically modeled according to the two known
adsorption models of Langmuir and Freundlich and the data better fit the Freundlich isotherm model. Thus,
clay admixed with quarry fines used in this work, as adsorbent for Copper removal, revealed great retention
capacity, making it very suitable for use as clay barriers in public landfills.