Removal of toxic anions from wastewater by fish scales bio-waste material

In this work, fish scales waste biomaterial was used as an alternative adsorbent for the removal of anions from wastewater. The pulverized waste materials revealed a rough surface which is often associated with effective sorbent. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed the presence of hydroxyl, carboxylate esters, phosphate and amine functional groups. X-ray diffractometer also show the presence of hydroxyapatite in the fish scale waste. The optimum parameters for anions removal were found to be 7.03, 73.18 mgL-1, 69.19 min and 23.11mgL-1for pH, pulverized fish scale dosage, contact time and initial anions concentration respectively at n = 3. Kinetic studies showed that pseudo-second-order reaction model best described the adsorption process. The percentage removal of anions from the wastewater by the waste material was averaged at 88 ± 2% at n = 3.