The utilization of solid waste of tofu industry immobilized by silica as adsorbent in Ni (II) adsorption in continuous flow column

This research was purposed to determine the removal efficiency of Ni (II) based on the adsorbent height and flow rate variation in continuous flow column using tofu solid waste industry which was immobilized by silica,to examine the characteristics of the absorbent through the FTIR analysis. Adsorbent height variation used was 2 cm and 4 cm. Variation of flow rate used was 5 mL/ min and 10 mL/min. The analysis data of the removal efficiency of Ni (II) in continuous flow column was explained by the descriptive analysis. The removal efficiency of Ni (II) in continuous column for the adsorbent height variation 2 cm and 4 cm which were 43.798% and 50.963% respectively. The removal efficiency of Ni (II) in continuous flow column for the flow rate variation 5 mL/min and 10 mL/min were 43.798% and 37.374% respectively. The result of FTIR analysis of the adsorbent conducted before the adsorption shown that there were C=O (1651.07 cm^-1), Si-O-Si (462.92 cm^-1 and 794.67 cm^-1), O-H (3425.58 cm^-1), and N-H (3749.62 cm^-1). While, the result of the FTIR analysis after the adsorption shown that there were Si-O-Ni (956.72 cm^-1) and Ni-N (410.85 cm^-1).