Equilibrium and kinetic studies for extracting Cu, Mn, and Fe from pulp wastewater onto A C-18 column with acetylacetone complexing ligand

A preconcentration procedure using solid phase extraction of heavy metals in pulp wastewater is reported. The procedure was optimized by using model solutions of selected heavy metals to investigate the effect of matrix constituents. Equilibrium studies highlighted the bonding and adsorption characteristics. The metal recoveries after spiking pulp waste filtrate with Cu, Ni, and Pb each at 0.1 and 0.2 ppm was 120, 91, and 93%, respectively. The Freundlich adsorption isotherms with correlation coefficients (R ²) 0.612, 0.810, and 0.750, showed a better fit compared to Langmuir isotherm values of 0.277, 0.389, and 0.272 for Cu, Mn, and Fe, respectively.