Improving Removal of Nickel from Wastewater using Palm Leaf Ash as a Biosorbent

Nickel (Ni) as a heavy metal due to its toxicity should be removed from wastewater and aquatic environments  using  efficient  technology.  The  aim  of this  study  was  to  remove  Ni  from  an aqueous  solution  using  palm  leaf  ash  produced  in  a  furnace.  To  do  so,  kinetic  and thermodynamic experiments were conducted on the adsorption process. Moreover, the effect of time, pH, adsorbent and initial concentration of Ni was studied on Ni adsorption. The results of the experiment indicated that the Ni adsorption process followed the Freundlich isotherm model. The study  of kinetic data  also displayed the  removal of  Ni ions  from  the  pseudo-second-order kinetics.  The  results  showed  that  the  percentage  removal  of  Ni  (II)  and  maximum  adsorption capacity  of  an  adsorbent  for  Ni  (II)  ions  were 94.67%  and 40.81  mgg-1,  respectively. Furthermore, the enthalpy of the adsorption process (ΔH) was 62706.8 j.mol-1.