Hoda Ganji - PhD student at Department of Water Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, ۹۱۷۹۶۶-۶۵۴۹, Mashhad, Iran
Saeed Reza Khodashenas - Department of Water Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, ۹۱۷۹۶۶-۶۵۴۹, Mashhad, Iran
Mohsen Taghavijeloudar - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, ۱۵۱-۷۴۴, Seoul, South Korea

The indiscriminate release of toxic heavy metals (HMs) such as lead (Pb) in to surface/ground water has led to several serious environmental problems. In this research, the potential of Pomegranate seed powder (PSP) was evaluated as a natural adsorbent for Pb removal from contaminated water. Real samples of contaminated water from Babol River were used to evaluate the performance of PSP. The effect of main operation parameters such as PSP dosage, contact time, initial concentration of HMs and pH on removal efficiency were studied. Moreover, SEM, EDX and FTIR analyses were performed to investigate HMs removal mechanism. According to the results, adding ۱.۵ g/L of PSP to samples could increase the removal efficiencies of Pb to ۸۸% within ۳۰ min contact time. Initial concentrations of Pb and pH variation showed negative effect on Pb removal. The results of SEM-EDX and FTIR analyses revealed that PSP has good feature which can effectively adsorb HMs through physico-chemical mechanisms. This study suggests HMs removal by PSP as a promising approach for heavy metals removal from contaminated surface water.

Water treatment; Natural adsorbent; Lead removal; Pomegranate seed powder