Removal and kinetics of succinic acid from aqueous waste over NaOH treated power plant fly-ash

Department of Chemistry, Govt. College, Kota-324 002, Rajasthan, India Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry, University of Kota, Kota-324 005, Rajasthan, India E-mail : ashu.uok@rediffmail.com Department of Chemistry, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur-302004, Rajasthan, India Manuscript received 08 March 2010. revised 08 July 2010, accepted 09 July 2010 Waste water containing succinic acid pose grave problems to the environment. As organic molecules are recalcitrant to bio degradation and difficult to treat by conventional methods, the effective removal from pollution generating sites is essential to prevent environmental hazards. In this study, fly ash from coal burning power plant was activated chemically and used as a low cost adsorbent for the removal of succinic acid from the aqueous waste. The activated fly ash was characterized for mineralogical, physiochemical and morphological properties by XRD, FT-IR and SEM analysis. Results showed that activated fly ash due to increased amorphous property possesses more activity over surface to act as a suitable adsorbent for the removal of acidic waste from industrial effluents. This application of fly ash to synthesize a low cost adsorbent, also finds a noble way to utilize this abundant waste material