THE EFFECT OF MASS OF COAL FLY ASH-CHITOSAN COMPOSITE PELLETS MODIFIED WITH GLUTARALDEHYDE ON THE ADSORPTION OF MERCURY IN SOLUTION

Syauqiah, Isna
Utami, Umi Baroroh Lili
Yusniar, Meina Wulansari

Tropical Wetland Journal
Vol 3, No 1 (2017)

Fly ash can be used and utilized as an adsorbent because it is cheap and effective to adsorb waste in the aquatic environment. Hg also known as Mercury is a carciogenic heavy metal and potentially threatens human health at very low concentrations. In this study, fly ash was applied as the adsorbent for Hg2+ in the form of chitosan-fly ash composite pellet and was cross-linked with glutaraldehyde in order to know how much the mass of pellets that can be used to lower the concentration of Hg2+ in solution. The results showed that the fly ash can be compositated with chitosan gel after going through the process of physical-chemical activation so that it can be formed into adsorbent pellets/granules. The optimum condition was obtained from adsorbent pellets of fly ash-chitosan composite crosslinked with glutaraldehyde after contacted with a solution containing Hg2+ with the pellet mass of 3 g.Keywords: composite, fly ash, glutaraldehyde, pellets