Enhanced Removal of Nickel (II) Ions from Synthetic Wastewater employing Fixed Bed Ion Exchange Column Technique

Jon exchange process is an exchange of ions between a solid resin and a liquid phase. This
method is widely used in the extraction of heavy metals in industries like electroplating for
industrial waste water treatment. Nickel present in the wastewater can cause serious harm to
living beings. It is equally harmful to human beings as well as the environment. In this study, ion
exchange process was used to study and enhance the removal of nickel from wastewater which
in tum improves the quality of the wastewater. In this project, the removal of Nickel (II) ions
from synthetic wastewater using a strong acid cation resin called Lewatit S 1467 in fixed bed
column is investigated. The resin is modified with Tetrabutylammonium Iodide prior to the
experiments. The purpose of this project is to determine the optimum conditions for the removal
of metal ions from the waste water solution and enhancing the performance of the resin through
modification. The experiments were conducted under different pH values (3, 5 and 7) and at
different initial concentrations of the contaminant (1.8, 2.8 and 3.8 gNi!L) The effect of
regeneration on the modified resin is also studied. The removal efficiency and rate of removal is
shown in breakthrough curves and the kinetic for the process is calculated. The exchange
isotherm was confinned on Thomas model. Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer was used to
measure the Nickel ion concentration in order to compare against the environmental limit.
Fourier Transfmm Infi'ared Spectroscopy was used for charactetization of the resin. Results from
this project will be useful in designing an appropriate heavy metal removal technique using ion
exchange process to minimize the negative impacts caused on the environment by industrial
wastewater.