Removal of Nickel from Water and Waste Waters Using Nano Zero Valent Iron (Nzvi

Removal of heavy metals from wastewaters and industrial wastes has become a very important environmental issue. Nickel salts are commonly used in silver refineries, electroplating, zinc base casting, storage battery industries, printing, and in the production of some alloys [1] and discharge significant amount of nickel in various forms to the environment. At higher concentrations, Ni2+ causes lungs, nose and bone cancer, headache,dizziness, nausea and vomiting, chest pain, tightness of the chest, dry cough and shortness of breath, rapid respiration, cyanosis and extreme weakness [2]. Several treatment methods for the removal of metal ions from aqueous solutions have been reported, mainly ion exchange, solvent extraction, evaporation, electrochemical reduction, chemical precipitation, reverse osmosis, and adsorption[3]. Among all the above methods adsorption is effective and simple. Nanoscale iron particles represent a new generation of environmental remediation technologies that could provide cost-effective solutions to some of the most challenging environmental cleanup problems. Nanoscale iron particles have large surface areas and high surface reactivity. Research has shown that nanoscale iron particles are very effective for the transformation and detoxification of a wide variety of common environmental contaminants. Recent research suggests that nano Zero Valent Iron (nZVI) has metal removal capacity much higher than conventional sorbents such as activated carbon, zeolites and polymeric ion exchange resins. Experimental studies on the removal of Ni(II), with nZVI are presented in this work.