POTENSI KOMPOS SEBAGAI MEDIA PENUKAR ION UNTUK MEREDUKSI LOGAM BERAT DALAM AIR LIMBAH

Abstract

The potential of compost from the City of Surabaya, as ion exchanger medium, was investigated because of its high leaf humus content. It is presumed that humus plays an important role in exchanging ion between heavy metal of wastewater with cations of the compost. Experiments were conducted in batch and continue processes. The batch process was carried out to determine the effect of initial copper concentration, compost dose and contact time to copper removal by compost. The batch data were used for the assessment of equilibrium and kinetic processes, while the continue process was performed in a column reactor to obtain its operational capacity. All experiments used an artificial wastewater containing CuSO₄ as copper source. The results showed that the potential of compost as ion exchanger for copper removal was quite promising. It was obtained the x/m maximum of 22,46 mg/g or 70,7 meq/100g and its operational capacity of 249,129 meq/L. During 2,5 hours of experiments, the reaction showed in accordance with the model of Langmuir isoterm and the second order reaction rate.