Utilisation of waste from the production of millet derived local drink as adsorbent for phosphate removal from aqueous solution

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Excess amount of phosphate can lead to eutrophication of the receiving wastewaters with potential risk to aquatic organisms and human health. The removal of phosphate ions from aqueous solution using waste from the production of millet derived drink was investigated. The material has good adsorbent properties as evident from determination of elemental composition by Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) and surface morphology by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The effects of contact time at two initial concentrations, pH, adsorbent dose and temperature on the adsorption process were studied. Over 99% of phosphate ions are removed in 10 min with pH having minor effect. Langmuir isotherm best fitted the process while the kinetics was well described by pseudo-second order model. The process was physical, endothermic and spontaneous. The tested waste material is very efficient in removing low and high levels of phosphate ions from wastewater compared to other adsorbents.