Taguchi Optimization of Adsorptive Treatment of Effluent from Lead-acid Battery Recycling unit Using Pressmud-a Sugar Industry Waste

Lead-acid battery recycling is one of the organized process which helps in overcoming the demand of lead for the production of the storage batteries. During recycling, a large amount of effluent is generated which contains lead beyond the permissible limit and harmful for the environment. This effluent was treated by adsorption as an alternative technique by using another waste (pressmud) as an adsorbent obtained from the sugar industry. Properties of the pressmud were determined through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction analysis. Taguchi method L16 orthogonal array (4^3) was used for batch adsorption study for the parameters, initial pH, adsorbent dose and contact time. The optimum value for the adsorption of Pb(II) onto pressmud was found at effluent pH 4.5, adsorbent dose 1.0 g/50mL and time 240 min from the Signal-to-Noise ratio analysis. Kinetic and isotherm studies were also carried out to understand the mechanism of adsorption. Langmuir isotherm fitted best to the experimental data with R2=0.994 and kinetics of adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order model with R2=0.993.