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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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.
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