Removal of Phosphates from Polluted Waters Using Bio-adsosrbents

Increasing interest is being envisaged by environmental researchers in controlling the phosphates pollution in natural waters by evoking the surface sorption characteristics of bio-waste materials of flora origin. In the present work, a thorough investigation has been made to find powders of leaves or their ashes of different classes of plants, having the affinity towards phosphate ions. 10 plant leaves and their ashes have been found to have sensitivity towards Phosphate ion. Investigations have been made in optimizing the various physico-chemical parameters such as equilibration time, pH and sorption dosage for the maximum removal of phosphates. The % of removal is found to be increasing with the increase in pH and equilibration time. The ashes of leaves shows more sorption towards phosphates than powders of leaves.79% to 90% removal of phosphate from polluted waters are found at optimum conditions with the sorbents investigated in this work. The interference of foreign ions on the % of extraction of phosphate reveals that some divalent cations are found be synergizing the extraction and thereby % of removal of Phosphate is increased even in the presence of 500 ppm of the said ions.