Environmental Research & Technology, Vol. 1(4), pp. 1-5, 2018 Corresponding Author: moroydor@yildiz.edu.tr (Emek Moroydor Derun) Received 31 May 2018; Received in revised form 7 September 2018; Accepted 14 September 2018 Available Online 16 October 2018 Doi: ISSN: 2636-8498 © Yildiz Technical University, Environmental Engineering Department. All rights reserved. This paper has been presented at EurAsia Waste Management Symposium 2018, Istanbul, Turkey Environmental Research & Technology http://dergipark.gov.tr/ert CONFERENCE PAPER Removal of Cu (II) from wastewater of metal coating process by borax sludge Esma Burcu Rona 1 , Meral Yildirim 2 , Emek Moroydor Derun *,2 1 Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (ISKI) 34060 Eyup/Istanbul, TURKEY 2 Yildiz Technical University Chemical Engineering Department, 34220 Esenler, Istanbul, TURKEY ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to determine the adsorption behavior of borax sludge for removal of copper from industrial wastewater. The borax sludge was generated during borax production and used for treatment of wastewater of metal coating process. The parameters of pH, concentration and contact time were investigated in batch experiments to determine the efficiency of adsorption. Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES) was used to calculate the reduced amount of Cu (II). The results were applied to various kinetic models and adsorption isotherms. The pseudo second order model was successful to fit the adsorption process in the kinetic study because the regression coefficient values (R 2 ) were changed between 0.9995 and 0.9978. Langmuir (R 2 =0.9985) and Temkin (R 2 =0.9985) isotherms models were the best to explain the process. Keywords: Adsorption, borax sludge, heavy metal, wastewater treatment 1. INTRODUCTION Heavy metal ions in the exit water of different industries like electroplating, smelting, mining, petroleum and chemical industries cause soil and water related pollution effects to the environment. Even if they found in low amounts in the ecosystem, they cause severe damages [1]. In order to prevent industrial heavy metal contamination, the wastewater must be treated before being discharged to the receiving environment and the heavy metal concentrations contained in the contents must be reduced to the discharge limits specified in the laws and regulations. Heavy metal removal from industrial wastewater at high concentration levels is mainly carried out using purification methods such as chemical precipitation, reduction/oxidation, reverse osmosis, membrane filtration, ion exchange, neutralization, evaporation and adsorption [2-4]. Copper is one of the threatening heavy metal that excessive intake of it leads to serious toxicological consequences such as vomiting, cramps, convulsions and death in living bodies [5]. To remove of copper ions from aqueous solution effectively, precipitation [6], ion exchange [7], electrochemical separation [8] and adsorption methods [9] have been used. Compared to the other methods adsorption has many advantages that needs very low concentrations, easy handling and has continuous processes with the possibility of regeneration [10], while the others need excessive time requirements, high cost and high energy consumption [11]. In literature there are many studies about removal of copper from aqueous solutions among many low cost adsorbents like montmorillonite [12], kaolinite [13], illite [14], palygorskite, sepiolite [15], dolomite [16] and calcite [17]. As studies going on finding low cost adsorbents; using waste materials as adsorbents has also extra advantages on removal of heavy metals. For instance in Turkey 600.000 tons of boron waste causes an important waste problem [18]. As the consumption of boron increase, the waste boron amount will also increase in the future. Thus, using waste boron for waste removal is a unique approach. In published literature, boron waste has been used as an adsorbent in adsorption studies for dye, cadmium (II), zinc (II) [19-20] and chromium [18]. Although there are studies on copper adsorption with different