Metal uptake from aqueous leachate of poultry litter by natural zeolite

The objective of this research was to identify Cu (II) and Zn (II) ions in the litter aqueous leachate and to take up these metals from leachate using natural zeolite. The adsorption capacities and sorption efficiencies were determined. The sorption efficiencies increased with increasing natural zeolite ratio. The pseudo first-order, the pseudo second-order, Elovich, and the intraparticle diffusion kinetic models were used to describe the kinetic data to estimate the rate constants. The second-order model best described adsorption kinetic data. The results indicated that natural zeolite showed excellent adsorptive characteristics for the removal of Cu (II) and Zn (II) from aqueous leachate of poultry litter and could be used as additive materials for poultry litter due to its high uptake capacity and the abundance in availability. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2011