Removal of Heavy Metals by Pentace triptera: Effect of Biomass Size, Mass and Initial Concentration

Removal of heavy metal such as Cu2+ and Pb2+ from industrial wastewater is most
primary importance. This is because contamination of wastewater by heavy metal is a
serious environmental problem. This project is focusing on finding the optimum
parameters for the adsorption of heavy metal ion from metal ion solution to occur,
which are initial concentration, biomass size and biomass mass by Pentace triptera.
Different initial concentration of metal ions solution, biomass sizes and biomass
masses were set in order to accomplish the objectives of this research. The Pentace
triptera (Janda Baik) leaves that were used as the biomass in this project are a good
source of plant material for removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution. The
main reasons are the inexpensive cost and the availability of the leaves around
Malaysia. From the experimental method, it is found that increases in initial
concentration will give "higher uptakes of metal ions, fewer biomass mass and small
biomass size enhance the separation of heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions.