Background and Objective: Zinc is one of trace elements essential for human but too much zinc can cause eminent health problems especially in drinking water that must be removed. The purpose of this study was to determine the removal zinc from water by natural and modified maize hull.
Material and Methods: This stady was non-continuous experiment which was implemented in lab scale conditions by changing effective factors such as pH(2 to 7), contact time(5 to 180 minutes), adsorbent concentration(10 to 150 ppm) and adsorbent dosage(1 to 6 g/l) in 100 ml deionized water. The concentration of zinc was measured by atomic adsorbtion in accordance with standard method and removal percentage of Zn deteminated.
Results: Removal rate of zinc increased with increasing the contact time, dose of adsorbent, pH and decreasing by initial concentration of zinc. Efficiency of natural and modified maize hull in the optimum state was 91% and 98% respectively. The kinetic and isotherm was pseudo second order and Langmuir (II) respectively. ANOVA analysis showed that all of the variables in the process have been statistically significant effect (p < 0.05).
Conclution: According to the results obtained maize hull appears to be suitable, low cost and efficient adsorbent for removing Zn (II) from aqueous solutions.