A new research titled “Treatment of Oil Refinery Wastewater Polluted by Heavy Metal Ions via Adsorption Technique using Non-valuable Media: Cadmium Ions and Buckthorn Leaves as a Study Case” was published by the lecturer in the department of petroleum engineering in the university of Kerbala “Salem Jawad Kadhum”. The research paper was published in “Karbala International Journal of Modern Science”, which is a Scopus indexed Q2 journal.
The aim of the research is to investigate the removal of cadmium as one of the heavy metals from wastewater of Iraqi oil refineries by adsorption technology, using buckthorn leaves as an available and inexpensive adsorption medium. The research was achieved through a simulation of laboratory-made pollutant solutions with the same concentrations of cadmium ions found in oil refinery wastewater and in a laboratory batch-type adsorption system, before implementing the treatment process for real refinery wastewater.
The study found that buckthorn leaves are highly capable at recovering cadmium ions from manufactured and real wastewater, reaching 94.4367 and 74.43%, respectively. In addition, buckthorn leaves can be reused 3 times after reactivating them chemically and 5 times after reactivating them physically.
In view of the results achieved, the research recommends expanding the study by investigating the ability of buckthorn leaves to treat other types of liquid waste, such as organic materials. Furthermore, the research recommends using materials of biological origin in the treatment of wastewater, due to their availability and low cost
