International Journal of Nonferrous Metallurgy, 2012, 1, 32-41 doi:10.4236/ijnm.2012.13005 Published Online October 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ijnm) Removal of Chromium(III) from the Waste Solution of an Indian Tannery by Amberlite IR 120 Resin Pratima Meshram 1 , Sushanta Kumar Sahu 1* , Banshi Dhar Pandey 1 , Vinay Kumar 1 , Tilak Raj Mankhand 2 1 Metal Extraction & Forming Division, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, India 2 Dept. of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT BHU, Varanasi, India Email: * sushanta_sk@yahoo.com Received July 12, 2012; revised August 19, 2012; accepted August 29, 2012 ABSTRACT The extraction of chromium(III) from a model waste solution and also from a waste solution of an Indian tannery with Amberlite IR 120 resin is described, and the performance of this resin is compared with other similar resins. The pa- rameters that were optimized include effect of mixing time, pH, loading and elution behaviours of chromium(III) for this resin. Sorption of chromium(III) on Amberlite IR 120 followed Freundlich isotherm and Langmuir isotherm model, and the maximum sorption capacity was determined to be 142.86 mg Cr(III)/g of the resin. Higher Freundlich constant (K f ) values (6.30 and 13.46 for aqueous feed of 500 and 1000 ppm Cr(III)) indicated strong chemical interaction through ion exchange mechanism of the metal ion with the resin. The kinetic data showed good fit to the Lagergren first order model for extraction of chromium(III). Desorption of chromium(III) from the loaded resin increased with the in- crease in concentration of eluent (5-20% H 2 SO 4 ). With 20% (v/v) sulphuric acid solution 94% chromium(III) was eluted in three stages. Elution of the Cr(III) in the column experiments was however, found to be lower (82%) than that of the shake flask data. In case of Indian tannery’s waste solution, it was observed that almost total chromium was ex- tracted in four stages with Amberlite IR 120. Keywords: Chromium(III); Ion exchange; Amberlite IR 120; Tannery Waste Solution 1. Introduction In recent years, chromium has received considerable at- tention owing to uses of its compounds in pigments and paints, leather tanning, oxidative dying, electroplating, fungicides, catalysis, refractory materials, glass Indus- tries and various other industrial applications. These in- dustrial processes discharge large quantities of chromium into the environment. Chromium occurs in aqueous sys- tems in the trivalent and hexavalent forms. Out of the two forms, hexavalent chromium is more hazardous to living organisms than the chromium(III). Rapid oxidation of chromium(III) to chromium(VI) state in aquatic and solid wastes situations accounts for mobility of chro- mium. Therefore, removal and recovery of chromium(III) from industrial wastewater and effluents are critical from both ecological and economic point of view. It may re- duce the risk of polluting environment while the recov- ered compounds of chromium(III) can be reused. There are around 2500 tanneries in India including Tamilnadu (50%), West Bengal (20%) and Uttar Pradesh (15%). The other important states for the leather proc- essing are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. In- dia annually produces around 180 million m 2 of leather, which accounts for about 10% of global production [1]. As leather tanning industry effluent is one of the main sources of chromium pollution in aquatic system and the production of leather is increasing in India, development of a process for the removal of chromium ions is very important for the country. Basic Cr(III) sulphate is the main chemical used in the tanning process after which the spent tanning solution is discharged with a high con- centration of chromium, causing harmful effects to the environment. The consumption of basic chromium salts by the Indian leather industry is about 24000 tons per annum. Thus, about 2000 - 3200 tons of elemental chro- mium escape into the environment annually from these industries, with a chromium concentration ranging be- tween 2000 - 5000 mg/L [2]. These waste solutions are generally diluted and treated to convert Cr(III) to a hy- droxide sludge for disposal [3]. Whilst the treated waste water is allowed to enter to land stream with still higher level of chromium compared to the recommended per- missible limit of 2 mg/L. This trend, if not arrested, will certainly lead to a huge material loss as well as creating an ecological imbalance. A number of methods viz. chemical precipitation [4], * Corresponding author. Copyright © 2012 SciRes. IJNM