Removal of heavy metals from simulated wastewater using physically and chemically modified palm shell activated carbon

• Published in: Journal of Applied Sciences
• Main Author: Fuadi N.A.; Ibrahem A.S.; Ismail K.N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asian Network for Scientific Information 2014
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85059305203&doi=10.3923%2fjas.2014.1294.1298&partnerID=40&md5=97140b72307e86406fe278118bc90429

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the adsorption efficiency of Activated Carbons (AC) derived from oil palm shell in an adsorption column for removal of beryllium, calcium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, lead, antimony, strontium, titanium, vanadium and zinc ions from aqueous solution. Three types of adsorbent were used for the metal removal, which undergoes physical and/or chemical treatment. In physical treatment, raw palm shell was burned at 600°C for 5 h. All the adsorbents undergo physical treatment, with only the first adsorbent unblended, while the second adsorbent was blended. The third adsorbent underwent physical and chemical treatments where the physically treated AC was mixed with solvents for 24 h, then washed and dried. The solvent used for the third adsorbent were acetone and benzene. The results indicated that removal of metal ions by adsorption spawned different activities for different adsorbents. It is indicated that for overall adsorption efficiency, AC derived by combining physical and chemical treatment showed a maximum adsorption capacity with the least area under graph; 1371, calculated using trapezoidal equation. The physical treatment produced high carbon content by carbonization and high surface area by size reduction, while the chemical treatment enhanced the development of carbon surface by generating more pores, thus increasing the number of adsorption sites. © 2014 Asian Network for Scientific Information.