Removal of Cadmium from Aqueous Solutions using Ceramsite Mainly Composed of Pb-Zn Tailings

This paper studied the feasibility of applying ceramsite that is mainly composed of Pb–Zn tailings for cadmium removal in a laboratory environment. The influences of dosage, contact time, pH and the adsorption isotherm were examined via batch experiments. Further, two models including Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms were used to fit the experimental data. Results show that the removal rate of cadmium increases from 25% to 98% when pH increases from 2 to 12. Due to high efficiency, this type of ceramsite shows great potential for application in cost-effective elimination of cadmium from industrial wastewater.