Viability and life cycle assessment of Fuller's Earth as a low-cost adsorbent for zinc removal from aqueous solutions: Operating parameters, removal mechanisms and environmental impacts

Zinc is a heavy metal that has several health risks and must be removed from wastewater effluents before discharge to water bodies or reuse. Fuller's earth is a sedimentary clay and characterized by its low cost and availability. In this research, Fuller's earth (FE) was investigated as an adsorbent for the Zinc (Zn) removal from aqueous solutions to understand its performance, the mechanism of removal, and the potential environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted using ReCiPe 2016 midpoint method. Zn adsorption studies on FE were conducted at various pH (2.5–9), temperatures (10°C, 25°C, and 40°C), initial concentrations of Zn (25, - 150 mg/L) and adsorbent doses of (0.25–4 g/ 50 ml). The Zn removal efficiency reached 99% at pH = 9 at an initial Zn concentration = 100 mg/L and the adsorbent dose = 0.25 g/ 50 ml. The experimental data fit into the Temkin isotherm, while kinetics were best expressed by pseudo-second order. The controlling step of the adsorption process was the film diffusion according to Boyd model. Thermodynamic experiments showed that adsorption is endothermic with an accompanying rise in randomness in the system. The adsorption capacity was 3.56 mg/g. Images by SEM confirmed the occurrence of adsorption. The desorption was successful at different concentrations of HCl. LCA results showed that the maximum negative and positive environmental impacts were associated with mineral resource scarcity (7.5*10–5 kg Cu eq) and human non-carcinogenic toxicity (−0.821 kg 1,4-DCB), respectively.