Brian Teixeira, Department of Chemistry, Warren Wilson College
September 9, 1996

Abstract. With the heightened awareness of the need to
protect the environment, industry has been forced to deal with increasingly
stringent environmental regulations. A growing number of methods to
remove pollutants from waste water are utilized in industry. The purpose of this
research was to remove heavy metals from aqueous solution by
encapsulation. The method involved the addition of concrete and other materials
which entrap the heavy metals. The concentrations of metals were
determined by atomic absorption. Three different treatments were used and were
shown to be effective in removing zinc and iron. It was also found that the
detection limit of atomic absorption was not sufficiently low to compare the
effectiveness of the treatments.