Removal of Nickel (II) from Aqueous Solution Using Blast Furnace Slag (Water cooled slag and Air cooled slag)

The adsorption of nickel from liquid solutions onto water cooled blast furnace slag (WCBFS) and air cooled blast furnace slag (ACBFS) has been investigated. The process was studied in a batch system with respect to the initial pH, contact time, temperature, adsorbent dose and nickel initial concentration. The results showed that the experimental data was well represented by second order reaction for both adsorbent materials. Based on the kinetic modeling, the apparent activation energies calculated were 22.25 kJ and 36.81kJ/mol for WCBFS and ACBFS, respectively. The equilibrium data for WCBFS and ACBFS indicated that it fitted Freundlich model. However, adsorption onto ACBFS fitted Langmuir model better based upon the higher value of R2 obtained. The thermodynamic parameters (∆Hº, ∆Sº and ∆Gº) calculated from the experimental data indicated that the process was endothermic and spontaneous