METAL ION UPTAKE FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS BY HAZELNUT SHELL AND KERNEL PELLICLE

Shell and pellicle are waste products associated with shelling and pellicle removal in hazelnut production: they are mainly used as a solid fuel. Due to their metal ion adsorbing capacity, these abundant agricultural by-products could serve as cheap sorbents for removing heavy metals from industrial wastewaters and effective substitutes for traditional chemical treatments: using them in this way would help to reduce the manufacturing costs of the hazelnut industry. This work reports on laboratory tests carried out in order to evaluate both the adsorption of selected metal ions by hazelnut shell and pellicle and the recovery of the adsorbed ions.