Analysis of Mercury adsorption onto activated Carbon originating from cow bone.

Abstract

This project was aimed at providing a solution to significant amounts of mercury released during laboratory work through laboratory wastewater drainages to the environment. This project was however limited to studying the effectiveness of activated carbon obtained from cow bone in removing a known concentration of mercury from the waste water. The carbon was obtained from burning the bones in limited oxygen and later activated using orthophosphoric acid. The activated carbon was then soaked in this wastewater overnight to adsorb the mercury onto the activated carbon surface. The analysis was carried out using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). This implied that the cow bone-activated carbon was able to remove up to 99.9969% of the mercury concentration within this water. It was therefore concluded that activated carbon from cow bone is an alternative and environmentally friendly method of reducing pollution due to mercury.