POTENTIAL REMEDIATION OF HEAVY METALS FOUND IN THE ENVIRONMENT USING WOOD: RATE OF SORPTION OF CU, ZN AND CR ON ASPEN WOOD WOOL

The removal of metals contaminating groundwater is important as high levels of metals in drinking water have developmental effects and cause problems to the digestive systems of humans. Heavy metal contamination is often associated with roadway runoff and industry, and is likely to increase in developing countries over the near future. Organic materials such as peanut husk carbon and peat moss have proven to be cost effective materials for removing heavy metals from aqueous solutions. This study investigates the rates of metal sorption onto aspen wood wool in a laboratory setting. Glass columns packed with aspen wood wool (used in evaporative coolant processes) were flushed with Zn, Cu and Cr solutions at constant pH and flow rate, and metal concentrations were measured using ICP-OES. Changes in relative metal concentrations and isotherms were plotted to quantify the adsorption process. Once the wood was saturated with the metal, desorption experiments were run by flushing DI water through the column. Preliminary results indicate that aspen wood wool reaches saturation of metals between 3-8 hours (depending on the metal and flushing solution concentrations), suggesting its efficiency in absorbing metals for an extended period of time on a small scale. Desorption takes less time than the adsorption of metals, which suggests the two processes vary in organic-inorganic interactions.