Adsorptive treatment of textile wastewater using activated carbon prepared from pandanus amaryllifolius stems and areca catechu fronds
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Date
2016-02-01
Authors
Muhd Nazmi Ismail
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Abstract
The synthesis of activated carbons from pandanus amaryllifolius stem (PSAC) and areca cathecu or Pinang frond (PFAC) through physicochemical activation have been successfully investigated. The physicochemical activation was carried out by using potassium hydroxide (KOH) impregnation and carbon dioxide (CO2) gasification. The adsorption performance of the PSAC and PFAC were evaluated through the removal of methylene blue (MB), methyl red (MR) and remazol brilliant violet 5R (RBV) dyes from synthetic wastewater and also tested in the reduction of color and COD of industrial textile effluent. By using an experimental design, the results revealed that the activation temperature, activation time and KOH impregnation ratio (IR) were significant factors influencing the adsorption performance for all pollutants. The optimum preparation conditions for PSAC and PFAC were; activation temperature of 794 °C and 771 °C with activation time of 1.19 and 1.48 h and impregnation ratio of 2.75 and 1.94, respectively. Both activated carbons possessed mesoporous structure with relatively high surface area (>840 m2/g). The prepared activated carbons demonstrated heterogeneous pore structures with various functional groups on the activated carbon surfaces. The effects of adsorbate initial concentration (50-500 mg/L) and contact time (0-24 h) were evaluated through batch adsorption test. All dye adsorption uptakes increased with increasing initial concentration and contact time. Adsorption of all adsorbates onto PSAC and PFAC were best fitted by Langmuir model and also best fitted by pseudo-second-order kinetic model. In fixed bed column experiments, the effect of an inlet concentration, feed flow and activated carbon bed height on the breakthrough curves were determined. The highest bed capacities of PSAC on actual textile wastewater and PFAC on pollutants were obtained at 120 mm bed height and 10 mL/min flow rate. The adsorption data were well fitted with Thomas model. The results indicate that PSAC and PFAC were suitable as adsorbents for treatment of synthetic and actual textile wastewater.