RESULT

Table 3.0: Data from DR900 calorimeter

Heavy Metal Concentration of heavy metal

[ppm]

Initial pH 8.60

Cu 1.23

Fe 0.36

Zn 0.9
DISCUSSION

Wastewater is a combination of the liquid- or water-carried wastes removed from

residential, commercial and industrial establishments along with groundwater, surface water
and rainwater. Due to the large palette of inputs in the sewers, it contains certain undesirable
components, including organic, inorganic and toxic substances, as well as pathogenic or
disease-causing micro-organisms. Sludge resulting from residential wastewater treatment
process may concentrate from influent wastewater large amounts of potentially toxic elements,
such as heavy metals (cadmium, copper, chromium, nickel, lead, cadmium, zinc and mercury)
and metalloids, derived from the very nature of the sewage and from plumbing (Physics,
2015). Therefore, wastewater analysis was need to be done in order to trace the heavy metal
contamination according to the different regulation in different countries as it also affects
human and environment health (Baysal, Ozbek and Akman, 2013).

This study was employed the determination of concentration of iron (Fe), Copper (Co)
and Zinc (Zn) in waste water sample using AAS as common method of heavy metal detection
has been conducted. Thus, this experiment has been done to undergoes the concentration of
heavy metals by using DR 900 calorimeter. In this experiment, the acid digestion has been
done by adding up 10ml of nitric acid (HNO3) repeatedly into the the water sample when it
was heated until reach 10ml. Then, 5ml of hydrochloric acid (HCl) been added when the
sample become clear and can be seen through. After the sample been digested, the heavy
metal can be identified.

Based on table 3.0, the initial pH of wastewater from tank D1 in this experiment are
8.60. It is well known that the solubility of toxic metals increases with the pH decrease. The
relationship of heavy metal concentration corresponding to the initial pH of wastewater are the
mechanism of migration and transformation of heavy metals can be summarized as ion
exchange, dissolution, and desorption. The effect of pH on the speciation of heavy metals is
of great significance to the migration and transformation of metals. The change of pH
conditions in the system will have a certain impact on the migration and distribution of heavy
metals. Other than that, pH is the main factor affecting the adsorption characteristics of heavy
metals, which controls the solubility of hydroxides, carbonates, and phosphates of heavy
metals and also affects the hydrolysis of heavy metals in sediments and organic matter,
dissolved clay surface charge changes, and the formation of ion pairs.

Based on the result in table 3.0, the concentration of Copper was the highest which
1.23 mg/L then followed by Zinc and Ferum which were 0.9 mg/L and 0.36 mg/L respectively.
The higher concentration of copper present in the wastewater. As with lead, there was a
relationship between zinc and both roof material and geographic regions. This is more likely
to come from galvanized roofing that influence the presence of the heavy metal in the
wastewater sample.

Throughout the heavy metals analysis, the wastewater (effluent) was not safe to be
discharge to the stream. According to the Industrial Effluent Regulation (IER) 2009, the
acceptable conditions for discharge of industrial effluent or mixed effluent of standards A and
B, (Table 4.5) for Copper (cu) was 0.2 mg/L and 1.0 mg/L for standard A and Standard B
respectively. However, by comparing to the wastewater sample, the copper (cu) content was
above both Standard A and Standard B which shows that it was not allowed to be discharge
without any treatment. It was considered as not safe to be discharge and may be harmful
towards environments, human and animals because of the water was not comply to the
standard (regulation).

Table 2 : Acceptable conditions for discharge of industrial effluent or mixed effluent

of standards A and B, IER 2009. (Department of Environment, 2010)

Based on this experiment, there are several errors, which are during the digestion
method the temperature was too high and makes the sample not soft boil this is due
to the short period of the experiment. Next, while using DR900 calorimeter, the bottle sample
still in wet condition, this may difficult to read the reading of concentration.
REFERENCE

Physics, E. (2015). and Hexavalent Chromium in Sewage Sludge From, 60, 237–245.

Sa’idi, M. (2010). Experimental studies on effect of Heavy Metals presence in Industrial

Wastewater on Biological Treatment. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Vol. 1)

Jaishankar, M., Tseten, T., Anbalagan, N., Mathew, B. B., & Beeregowda, K. N. (2014).
Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals. Interdisciplinary
Toxicology, 7(2), 60–72. https://doi.org/10.2478/intox-2014-0009