Estudio experimental y simulación dinámica de la adsorción de Cd+2 y Pb+2 utilizando cáscara de cacao en columna de lecho fijo

Abstract

The use of biomass as an adsorbent constitutes a potential alternative for the removal of heavy metals present in industrial wastewater, which represents a high risk for the environment. In this work, the adsorption of Pb+2 and Cd+2 was performed using the cocoa shell as adsorbent in columns, and the dynamic simulation of the process using the Aspen Adsorption® V10 software, in order to validate the simulation results and those obtained experimentally. The simulator and experimental rupture curves converge in almost the entire trajectory, with slight variations in the final stretch of the curve, with the rupture times coinciding for both metals, giving correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.984 and 0.998 for Pb+2 and Cd+2 respectively, as well as error values (SSE) less than 5%. The effect produced by the variation of the height of the bed and the flow rate in the rupture curves was analyzed, as the bed height increases and the flow rate decreases, the rupture time increases, favoring the adsorption of both metals. The results of this research show the importance of the use of Aspen Adsorption® software in the biosorption process, due to the similarity with experimental results, providing its use saving time and resources.