NOVEL SORBENTS FOR SORPTION AND RECOVERY OF HEAVY METALS FROM WASTEWATER

An efficient method for directly removing chromate and metals such as nickel,zinc, cadmium, mercury, cobalt, chromium(III), lead in two separate stages isproposed. The highly capacity sorbents could be regenerated, recovering thechromate and other metals separately. The regeneration is expected to beefficient and is simply based on changing the pH from one extreme to another.Bench scale characterizations of chromate specific sorbents and the ones forother metals will be carries out for their sorption capacity, adsorptionisotherms, desorption conditions, cycle life and efficiency. The metals from thesorbents, except for chromate, will be recovered by electrowinning afterconcentration. The chromate will be concentrated, recrystallized and recycled.Using the best set of sorbents, an environmental engineering company will conductbench scale testing for a continuous process to assess the merits of the proposedsorbents and will present a detailed report.