Studies on the Removal of Heavy Metal Ions from Industrial Effluents Using Ammonium Pyrrolidine Dithio Carbamate (APDC) Loaded Polyurethane Foams (PUF)

Open cell polyurethanes (PUF) find wide range of applications as good column materials for the concentration and removal of both organic and inorganic pollutants because of their high efficiency for sorption of various ionic and neutral materials. Ammonium pyrrolidine (APDC) loaded PUF were found to ct as good sorption materials which can be applied to develop commercially viable and highly efficient separation processes for the removal of heavy metals like Pb, Hg. Cd, Ni, Cu and Cr and these results are presented in this paper. The optimum conditions like flow rate, pH, plasticizer concentration were established for the removal of these toxic heavy metals individually and when present in mixture with APDC loaded PUF (2.5 g PUF-2.0 g 10% APDC). These studies revealed that a combination of modular columns in series will remove completely all these toxic heavy metals when present together even at 100-1000 ppm. An experimental design is worked out to treat 10 litres volume of waste water containing 100-10000 ppm each of this heavy metal. The extraction efficiency and the process cost analysis were determined. The application of this new media for the removal of heavy metals from municipal sewage and the chloro-alkali industrial wastes was demonstrated.