Material characterizations and copper, zinc, and lead removing capacity of C¸ ayırhan fly ash

This research focuses on the removal of toxic heavy metals in wastewater using coal fly ash (CFA) from C¸ ayırhan thermal power plant, which is among the biggest coal producers in Turkey. The chemical and physical properties of fly ash were determined. The adsorption, desorption, and precipitation experiments were done for different purposes. The effects of metal concentration, agitation time, particle size, ash amount, and pH in the metal removal were examined. The results indicated that the main mechanism for metal removal was precipitation due to the alkaline characteristics of fly ash. A very small percentage of adsorbed metal was released during the desorption test. Statistical analysis of the experiments was carried out with the selected parameters at 4 levels. Statistically speaking, for all metals (Cu, Zn, Pb) and all initial ppm levels (10, 50, 100 ppm), initially 50 ppm zinc solution showed the best metal removal capacity