Development of teawaste based biosorbent materials for removal of heavy metals from wastewater

In this research new low-cost bio-sorbent material for application in heavy metal removal from wastewater were produced and evaluated. Previous research by research group showed that low-cost materials such as teawaste have a role to play as bio-sorbent materials. Three different materials were produced by further treatment of the teawaste (TW) material collected from a local cafeteria namely magnetic teawaste (MTW), bleached teawaste (BTW) and magnetic bleached teawaste (MBTW). The adsorption capacities of these materials were towards chromium (VI) was determined the adsorption capacities increased in the order MTW, BTW, MBTW and TW. Interestingly the capacities of the BTW and MTW were significantly lower than that of TW and that of the MBTW was almost double the individual capacities of BTW and MTW. The lower the adsorption capacities of the BTW and MTW in comparison to TW may be attributed to the loss of functional groups during the treatment processes.