The use of agro-industrial residues of coffee (Coffea arabica) for the removal of mercury from water

Contamination of water bodies by heavy metals is a continuously growing environmental issue. High concentrations of mercury (Hg) in river waters are a recognized environmental problem, because it is one of the most toxic heavy metal ions as it causes damage to the central nervous system. Its negative impact has led to the development of different methods for the treatment of effluents contaminated with Hg(II). The aim of this article is to evaluate the use of coffee (Coffea arabica) residues as adsorbent of Mercury in an aqueous solution. Four kinetic models, including intraparticle diffusion, pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and Elovich kinetic models were applied to explore the internal mechanism of mercury adsorption. Results indicate that the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models could accurately describe the adsorption process. It means that chemical adsorption play an important role in the adsorption of mercury by activated carbon. Meanwhile, the external mass transfer process is more effective in controlling the activated carbon mercury adsorption according to the fitting result of the pseudo-first-order model. The fitting to Langmuir’s model suggested that the material surface is energetically homogeneous. The technique of contaminated biomass encapsulation proved to be safe for short-term disposal when metal recovery is not desired.