A research on the application of papaya seeds in paint industry waste water lead treatment

Abstract

This report shows the potential of papaya seeds as a potential low-cost adsorbent for the removal of lead ions from aqueous waste water as a function of pH, contact time and adsorbent dosage in a batch set-up. The papaya seeds were ground and homogenised and then treated against different conditions of pH, adsorbent dose and contact time. That said, the optimum conditions were found to be a pH of 5, (84.4%, 84.5% and 84.3%) contact time of 120 minutes (2 hours) yielding 74.53%, 73.45%, 75.52% and a dosage of 3g (65.9%,66.1% and 66.6%) for the experimental scale yielding an efficiency of 90%. The obtained curves of which were contrasted with the Langmuir models with regards to adsorption.