Evaluation of Rice Straw-Based Hydrogels for Purification of Wastewater

The use of rice straw waste (RS) as a substrate for the preparation of metal adsorbents hydrogels has been demonstrated. Four types of RS-based hydrogels were prepared, and evaluated for their effectiveness on purification of wastewater loaded with Cu(II), Fe(II), Zn(II) and Mn(II). Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption equations were used for estimating the adsorption capacities. The results indicated that the hydrogels have significant effect on removing the metal ions from wastewater. The removal efficiency exceeded 95% for Cu(II) and Mn (II) ions and 85 for Fe (II) and Zn (II) ions.