Comparison of Different Modeling Methods of Copper Adsorption by Modified Orange Peels

Abstract

Copper (Cu) which has higher electrical and thermal conductivity is an essential element in different sectors. Also, wastes occurred in these sectors contains copper in high amounts. For instance, printed circuit boards (PCB), a type of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), have 18.4 % Cu by weight. Therefore, it should be recovered from this type of wastes instead of mining activities. In this manner, it was focused on the copper adsorption via waste orange peels. In the study, firstly orange peels were modified by different methods (saponification, hydroxypropylation and crosslinking) in order to increase the adsorption capacity. Adsorption tests on the Cu model solutions were carried out by using the native/modified orange peels in different conditions. Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models and pseudo-first, diffusion and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were fitted to experimental data. Also, different curve fitting models were used for Gaussian and Exponantial Results obtained from linear and non-linear regression methods were compared to determine the best fitting of isotherm and kinetic model to experimental data.