Track: Environmental Engineering and Management

Abstract

Bioadsorption has proven to be an effective and cost-efficient way of adsorbing heavy metals from contaminated samples of water. The objective of this investigation is to test and evaluate the capability of orange peel as an adsorbent of heavy metals that could contaminate fresh water and hurt communities of people along with the environment. The peel will be specifically tested to eliminate mercury, cadmium and lead from contaminated water samples. The biomaterial will be dehydrated and then grounded with a 150-micron sieve. The resulting bioadsorbent will then be used to purify the contaminated water samples. The concentration of heavy metals will be measured before and after the use of the sorbent to calculate how much was adsorbed. The orange peel is expected to work as an effective adsorbent for purifying heavy metal contaminated water. Because of the nature and cost of the material being used, the ending result will most likely be used for the fabrication of economic filters and finally sold as such.