Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater Using Cow Bone Charcoal

Bone charcoal, a mixed adsorbent containing around 10% carbon and 90% calcium phosphate, is mainly produced by thermal treatment of bones. Structurally, calcium phosphate in bone charcoal is in the hydroxyapatite form [1-2]. Traditionally, bone charcoal has been used to remove color in sugar solutions in the sugar refining industry. Recent studies use bone charcoal to adsorb radioisotopes of antimony and europium ions from radioactive wastes [1-6]. Those authors suggested that chemisorption was the main operating mechanism for Eu removal with a high degree of irreversibility fixation on bone charcoal from the aqueous solution. They claim that sorption is due to cation exchange of metal ions onto hydroxyapatite. In the present work the adsorption of nickel and copper ions from solutions, onto bone charcoal in agitated batch absorber vessels was studied. The main goal of this study is to examine the ability of bone charcoal to remove these ions from aqueous solution and therefore evaluate its potential to be used in wastewater treatment systems.