The effectiveness of oil palm frond based activated carbon as an adsorbent in leachate treatment
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Kameleswary A/P Watalinggam
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Abstract
Leachate is a liquid that contains a lot of pollutants and can cause contamination
if it is infiltrated into the natural environment and groundwater table. Therefore, it
should be treated properly before discharged to avoid any adverse effects. In this
research, adsorption method was used to treat the leachate. Oil palm frond based
activated carbon was produced and used as an adsorbent to carry out the leachate
treatment. This research has drawn its focus on the tests conducted to produce an
activated carbon from oil palm frond by chemical activation with zinc chloride (ZnCl2)
and to determine its effectiveness to treat the leachate. The results of the laboratory test
mainly focused on the determination of iodine number of the activated carbon produced
with different carbonization temperature and impregnation ratios of zinc chloride,
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis to identify the microstructure of the
produced activated carbon and the effectiveness of the activated carbon in leachate
treatment in terms of COD, colour and iron (Fe) removal percentage. The laboratory
test results shown that the oil palm frond based activated carbon that is produced with
the ratio of oil palm frond to zinc chloride (ZnCl2) which is 1:3 and the carbonization
temperature is 400°C has been identified as the sample that has the highest iodine
number which is 516. For the leachate treatment, the maximum colour removal which
was 76.03% occurred when the activated carbon dosage was 1.4g and the shaking time
was 40 minutes. Meanwhile, maximum COD removal which was about 76.83%
occurred when the activated carbon dosage was 1.2g and the shaking time was 60
minutes. Highest iron (Fe) removal which is about 70.10% took place when the
activated carbon dosage was 1.2g and the shaking time was 50 minutes. Overall results
indicated the effectiveness of oil palm frond based activated carbon as an adsorbent in
leachate treatment.