Elimination of mercury by adsorption onto activated carbon prepared from the biomass material

Following the previous work (Kaghazchi et al., 2010 [11]), dealing with applying a combination of two kinds of agricultural wastes to produce a new adsorbent, this study is dedicated to investigate the details of mercury adsorption process from aquatic medium by this adsorbent. So the Mix-ZC activated carbon (the sample prepared by chemical activation of a mixture of pistachio-nut shells and licorice residues impregnated with zinc chloride) was selected for doing a series of batch adsorption experiments on it. Equilibrium isotherms, such as Freundlich, Langmuir, Dubinin–Redushkevich and Temkin have been tested. Kinetic studies based on Lagergren first-order, pseudo-second-order rate expressions and intra-particle diffusion studies have been done. The mechanisms of mercury adsorption onto this adsorbent under the operating conditions were also studied.