High efficiency of tuff quarrying residuals and their associated mordenite for adsorbing chromium and lead from aqueous solutions

In this study we present a dacite quarrying material susceptible for use as a lead and chromium adsorber in aqueous systems. Its efficacy in adsorbing these heavy metals reached >97% and ?95% for chromium and lead, respectively. Given that the presence of mordenite is often initially interpreted as the principal factor associated with this high adsorbing efficiency, sample treatment via a phase separation process was performed in order to obtain a material with a high concentration of mordenite, on the other hand, in order to planning the experiments we used an experimental design methodology and ANOVA analysis method. Subsequently, the resulting material only showed slight incremental increases in adsorbing capacity. Thus, the quarrying material appeared to be a good candidate for use, as received from mining exploitation.