Pengaruh Laju Alir terhadap Kinerja Kolom dalam Proses Biosorpsi Ion Merkuri (Hg) Menggunakan Kolom Fixed Bed

Abstract

Heavy metal ions; including copper, cadmium, zinc, lead, mercury, chromium and nickel; in groundwater and industrial waste water can cause serious problems because it is carcinogenic and toxic to human health. Among the various processes for purifying heavy metal wastes, biosorption which involves binding of pollutant loads at the interface through physical or chemical bonding, offers better performance and less problems compared to other advanced processes. Biosorption also offers an economical solution by developing biosorbents at a much lower cost. Indonesia is the largest coconut producing country in the world, so the coconut coir produced is also quite large and is still underutilized. In selecting a biosorbent, it is carried out based on the pore surface area of the adsorbed substance. In this case, the material that meets is coconut coir. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of variations in flow rates on the performance of the kinetics of the biosorption column in the absorption of mercury. This research was conducted by immersing the biosorbent with NaOH and without NaOH immersion. Variations of the flow rate used were 5.10, 15.20 and 25 mL/minute. The results of the Fourier-Transformer Infrared (FTIR) analysis show that biosorbents with NaOH immersion have larger pores. And the analysis of the Scanning Electron Microscope - Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) shows that the biosorbent with NaOH immersion has new elements, namely Si and Na. The percentage of Ct/C0 ratio at 240 minutes using biosorbent without NaOH immersion at the flow rates used were 5.10, 15.20 and 25 mL/minute respectively 35.41%, 0.50%; 2.98 %; 12.06%; and 91.86%, while the biosorbents with NaOH immersion were respectively 1.18%; 13.28 %; 7.56 %; 84.7 %; and 12.40%. In the adsorption column, the highest value of the linear regression coefficient was in biosorption using biosorbent with NaOH at a flow rate of 20 mL/minute in the Yoon-Nelson model with a value of R2 = 0.9331.