Adsorbent Material Based on Passion-Fruit Wastes to Remove Lead (Pb), Chromium (Cr) and Copper (Cu) from Metal-Contaminated Waters

The aim of the present work was to evaluate the feasibility of passion-fruit shell (PFS) biomass as adsorbent material to remove heavy metals from contaminated waters.Model mediums were used, which were composed of distilled water and the respective metal: lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and copper (Cu), with a dose of 10g of dry PFSbiomass per liter of medium.The residual concentration of each metal was determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). A good adsorption capacity was exhibited by this agro industrial waste, achieving removal levels of 96,93 and 82% for Pb, Cr and Cu, respectively.In addition,the results obtained showed an adequate fit to the Freundlich model (R-2> 0.91), on the basis of which,the following values of adsorption capacity (k: 1.7057, 0.6784, 0.3302) and adsorption intensity (n: 0.6869, 2.3474, 1.0499), for Pb, Cr and Cu respectively, were obtained. Our results suggest that Pb, Cr and Cu ions can be removed by more than 80% by using this agro industrial waste, which with a minimum treatment could be used as an adsorbent material in the treatment of metal contaminated waters.