To effectively use waste materials in developing a sustainable society, adsorbents for removing trace or low concentrations of fluoride, which is difficult to be removed by conventional techniques, were prepared from three waste materials: orange juice residue, waste sea weed, and spent cation exchange resin. These adsorbents were loaded with tri- or tetravalent metal ions such as iron(III) and zirconium(IV), of which zirconium(IV) was found to be most suitable as the loaded metal ion. From the pH effect on adsorption, the adsorption mechanism was inferred, and adsorption and desorption was found to be controlled by changing pH values. The maximum adsorption capacities on zirconium(IV)-loaded orange juice residue, waste sea weed, and spent cation exchange resin were evaluated as 33.1, 18.1, and 37.6 mg/g, respectively, which were higher than those of most other adsorbents reported in literatures. They exhibited high selectivity for fluoride over other anionic species and high durability. Tests to remove trace concentrations of fluoride from actual waste plating solutions revealed that the concentration could be reduced below the acceptable level using small amounts of these adsorbents, i.e., it was reduced lower than 1.5 mg/dm3 (WHO standard) by adding 1 g of the adsorbents into 1 dm3 test solution.
Part of the book: Environmental Chemistry and Recent Pollution Control Approaches