Removal of lead by using Raschig rings manufactured with mixture of cement kiln dust, zeolite and bentonite.

The present investigation is a follow-up of study on manufacturing Raschig ring for removal of lead from aqueous solution. The mixtures were formulated using cement kiln dust, zeolite, and bentonite, normally used as natural adsorbents in the industrial scale, according to mixture design algorithm and response surface method. The pastes were prepared by addition of 28.0wt.% de-ionized water, containing 0.1wt.% carboxymethyl cellulose, with mixed powders. The adsorbents were fabricated by extrusion of the pastes in Raschig ring form and calcination at 500°C after drying in oven. The effects of starting materials on the mechanical behavior of rings were studied from view point of mixture design algorithm to optimize the adsorbent composition. This method demonstrated to yield valuable information on the effects of used materials on mechanical characteristics. The study concluded that the strength, reliability and sorption capacity of ring can be simultaneously optimized by the addition of 47.5wt.% cement kiln dust, 32.5wt.% zeolite, and 20.0wt.% bentonite. In the next part of work, the sorption kinetics was investigated. The kinetic study indicated that the modified model can successfully correlate the sorption data. The equilibrium result showed the possibility of lead immobilization by fabricated rings.