Evaluation of Formaldehyde Adsorption by Human Hair and Sheep Wool in Industrial Wastewater with High Concentration

One of such pollutants which can be detected in many different industrial wastewaters is formaldehyde. The biological treatment of wastewater contaminated with formaldehyde is very difficult due to its antibacterial property. However the removal of formaldehyde using adsorption process such as activated carbon is possible but it may be expensive. The main aim of this study is the adsorption of formaldehyde on human hair and sheep wool as an adsorbent. Human hair and sheep wool are cheap and they can be disposed by common methods such as incineration. In this study, the concentration of formaldehyde in wastewater was measured during the adsorption process using chemical oxygen demand method (COD). Then the effects of different parameters such as pH, temperature, hydraulic retention time, formaldehyde concentration, and weight of human hairand sheep wool were evaluated. Finally, based on our results, optimum values of the parameters were investigated. The obtained results showed that formaldehyde can be adsorbed on human hair significantly. Also it was revealed that formaldehyde can be removed from wastewater during 5 min, and the increase of hydraulic retention time from 5 to 25 min is not effective on formaldehyde adsorption efficiency. The results elaborated that, formaldehyde adsorption efficiency using white hair, colored hair by chemical colors or natural ones (e.g. Henna), and sheep wool is as efficient as common human hair. The results attained from this research showed that using human hair or sheep wool for removing formaldehyde from industrial wastewater is possible.

Keywords:

Formaldehyde , Adsorption process , Human hair , Formalin , Sheep wool