RESEARCH PROPOSAL

1. Name of project:
Biosorbents from Agricultural by-product and their Adsorption characteristics
for Metal ions
2. Introduction:
The presence of heavy metals in the environment is of major concern because of
their toxicity, bioaccumulation, and threat to human life and environment. There
are a number of methods for removal of heavy metals from environment especially
wastewater, such as electrolysis, chemical precipitation, oxidation-reduction,
solvent extraction, ion-exchange and the use of biosorbents.
In recent years, many low cost biosorbents from agricultural by-products have
been investigated for their biosorption capacity towards heavy metals. Agricultural
wastes are now becoming viable alternatives since they are abundantly available,
much cheaper and have various functional groups such as carboxylic acid, ester,
carboxylate, hydroxyl, phenolic and amino that can act as adsorption sites for
heavy metal ions.
In Vietnam, There are a lot of agricultural by products because of a great density
in agricultural development. Hence, they can become abundant resources for
heavy metal removal.
3. Scope of work
The scope of work is to:
- Prepare biosorbents from agricultural by-products,
- Study the pH effects on sorption,
- Investigate the maximum metal ions adsorption capacity of materials,
- Investigate the time equilibrium of adsorption,
- Study the influence of several operating parameters such as: particle size,
different chemical treatment, initial concentration and adsorbent dose.


4. Objectives
- Develop adsorbents from agricultural wastes for sorption/recovery heavy
metals from aquatic medium
- Characterize in detail untreated and chemically modified agricultural by
products
- Examine the sorption/desorption behaviors of metal ions with untreated
and chemically modified agricultural by products
- Examine the effect of initial metal concentration, pH, and temperature,
amount of adsorbent and time on equilibrium
- Investigate physico-chemical properties of an combined biosorbent
components-sorptive pore volume, specific surface area, ion-exchange capacity,
different isotherms.
- Widespread application of self-prepared biosorbents in water treatment in
household and groups of households scale.
5. Methodology
- Method of preparation of materials (biosorbents)
- Method of material analysis:
+ Elemental analysis: Using elemental analyzer to characterize the
components of biosorbents regarding carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and
oxygen.
+ Functional groups analysis of material: Using KBr translucent disk to
prepare the biosorbent samples with an IR spectrometer over the
wavelength region 4000-1000 cm
-1
.
+ Chemical analysis: Using high-performance liquid chromatography
(HPLC) to detect main contents of biosorbents. The content of cellulose,
protein and minerals are important for metal capturing.
+ Carboxyl determination: This method is used for determination of
conversion factors. Untreated biosorbents are used for controlling purpose.
- Method of metal ions analysis: The analysis of metal ions will be carried
out colorimetrically with the 1,5 diphenyl carbadize method by using a UV-
visible spectrophotometer (Shimadzu UV-1700) (:540nm) and a graphite furnace
atomic absorption spectrophotometer (GFAAS).
- Method of determination of biosorption of metal ions: Using Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (PTIR).
6. Practical investigation
6.1. Overview
- After collecting, the agricultural by products are analyzed to determine the
composition. The initial material is dried, grinded and classified to use for next
steps.
- Biosorbents are then processed and modified in mixture of citric acid,
tartaric acid, oxalic acid solution. At this period, all surface moisture is removed
and biosorbent particles are coated with modifiers. The modified materials will be
used for metal ions removal.
- The determination of arsenic adsorption capacity of agricultural waste
grains is taken into account including the time of adsorptive equilibrium, the
maximum adsorption loading, the dynamic adsorption and the regeneration rate of
particles after using.
6.2. Detail practical investigation
6.2.1. Materials
- Raw materials for this work are agro-waste materials such as: straws,
shells of agricultural by products such as paddy, barley and walnut, okra waste
- Chemicals used were of analytical reagent grade.
6.2.2. Preparation and modification of initial materials
Summary of preparation of materials is presented in following figure.



















Figure. The summary of preparation of materials
6.2.3. Investigation of metal sorption










Collection of agricultural waste (biosorbents)
Composition analysis of biosorbents
Drying of biosorbents
Grinding and classification of
particles

Soaking biosorbents in modifiers
(24 h at 60
o
C)
Reaction of dry sample for 4h, at 120
o
C
Filtration and washing of products with water
Vacuum oven dried modified biosorbents at 45
o
C for 16h

Cooling treated sample to room temperature and storage










Figure. Investigation of metal sorption
Metal concentration in the solution was analyzed with UV-vis Spectrophotometer
(: 540 nm) and GFAAS. The concentration of metal ions is calculated from the
change in metal concentration in aqueous solution before and after equilibrium
sorption.
The influence of several operating parameters such as particle size, different
chemical treatment, contact time, pH, initial concentration and adsorbent dose was
studied.
7. Expected results
Some significant results will have been obtained after researching the heavy metal
removal capacity of agricultural by products such as:
- Create the materials using for heavy metal treatment
- Investigate of the maximum adsorption loading of agricultural by products
- Investigate of time of adsorptive equilibrium
- Investigate of the optimal pH for adsorption process


Metal
Solution
Batch
Vessel
Shaking Filtration
UV-Visible
GFAAS
Metal determination
Regeneration
Biosorbent