Bioremediation Potential of Bacteria and Rice Husk Biochar for Cadmium and Lead in Wastewater

Wastewater can be purified greatly when treated with biochar derived from natural rice husk. The present study provides the impact of bacteria (biofriend), commercial activated carbon, rice husk, and its biochar {pyrolysis at 300oC (RHB1), 400oC (RHB2) and 500oC (RHB3)} on synthesized and natural wastewater purification. The obtained results can be summarized as follow: RHB3 considered the best adsorbent ability for cadmium and lead in their single and mixed solutions. The presence of commercial activated carbon by the comparison it is found that it exceeds RHB3 in the case of lead. Rice husk resulted high adsorption values for cadmium and lead, but its adsorption of cadmium exceeds the lead. Addition of biofriend increase adsorption of cadmium and lead in most treatments but results still in the same trend as using rice husk or biochar only. RHB3 treatment observed its superiority and ability to purify lead and cadmium from synthesized and natural wastewater after 4 h contact time compared with other treatment under study