International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Biosorption of contaminant like copper using agricultural wastes like spent coffee grounds requires testing the compatibility of the sorbents with the sorbates and finding the optimum conditions for the process. This study is needed to avoid the disruptive effects of biosorption such as the generation of more wastes that eventually disrupts the balance in the environment. This paper is a baseline study to optimize the performance of adsorption of copper in wastewater using two species of spent coffee grounds i.e., Arabica and Robusta. The adsorptive capacities of pure blends of both species were compared to the 50:50 blend in a fixed-bed column. It is aimed to determine the optimum bed height, coffee variety and flow rate inside the column to reduce waste generated through experiments. It was found out that the optimum conditions were 7 cm bed height and 20 mL/min flow rate. The adsorptive capacities of the three varieties were 10.47, 13, and 15.41 mg/g for pure Arabica, 50:50 blend and pure Robusta, respectively.

Index Terms—Adsorptive capacities, agricultural wastes, biosorption, wastewater.

The authors are with the School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering and Sciences, Mapua University, Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila, 1002, Philippines (e-mail: adnieva@mapua.edu.ph).

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Cite: Aileen D. Nieva, Reuben James Q. Buenafe, Drex R. Guinto, and Jean Claudine F. Leaño, "Biosorption of Copper (II) from Simulated Wastewater Using Spent Coffee Grounds: A Column Study," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 261-265, 2019.

Copyright © 2019 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).