Evaluación de la actividad biosorbente de la cáscara de naranja y espiga de arroz para la remoción de mercurio inorgánico en solución acuosa.

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the biosorbent activity of the orange peel and rice spike for the removal of inorganic mercury in aqueous solution. The orange peels were collected from the San Alfonso and Condamine markets of the Riobamba city, as it refers to the rice spikes that it got from a pillbox. The oranges peels and rice spikes were the pre-treatment process due to the size of the rice spikes it was not necessary to cut them into fractions, not so the oranges peels that were cut into fractions of 5 cm, for later orange peels and rice spike to be washed with distilled water, to eliminate any contaminant present. Then it was dried for 24 hours in a laboratory oven at 60 ° C. Once dried, it was crushed in an industrial mill and then screened through a sieve of 40mm pore diameter on the top and a sieve of 850 um pore diameter at the bottom. Once the biomass was obtained, first filter was installed the rice spike in the lower part, corresponding to the first biosorbent, in a weight of approximately 12.5 g, followed by a layer of gravel in the middle part, and in the upper part a layer of orange peels, corresponding to the second biosorbent, in a weighing 12.5g.The removal efficiency was evaluated in a solution of mercuric nitrate (Hg (NO 3) 2) with an initial concentration of 408.25mg / L at a pH of 3.24, obtaining a removal capacity of 22.06% equivalent to 318.21mg / L with an absorption of 0.36016mg / g, reaching equilibrium having passed 40 minutes from the filtration.