Removal of heavy metal from industrial sludge by inorganic acid

Abstract

The removal of heavy metal from sludge before disposal or application to farmland is a necessary step to achieve a more safe sludge usage or disposal. Sludge refers to the residual, semi-solid material left from industrial wastewater or sewage treatment processes. It can also refer to the settled suspension obtained from conventional drinking water treatment and numerous other industrial processes. The term is also sometimes used as a generic term for solids separated from suspension in a liquid. For the extraction of heavy metal like Lead, Copper and Phosphorous the samples were collected from industrial sludge at different pH and reaction time from different places near Jalandhar city of the Punjab (India). In order to analyze the sludge, the physiochemical parameters like pH, Moisture and heavy metals like LEAD and COPPER from the industrial sludge. Results revealed that solubilization of metals using inorganic acids achieved its maximum extraction efficiency lead removal was noted to be 82.0% from the sludge sample, copper removal was noted to be 72.0% and phosphorous removal 69.0% from Industrial sludge. The present study depicts that organic acid remove heavy metal from sludge and can be used for the industrial waste management and other environmental maintenance.