Valorization of agricultural waste into activated carbons and its adsorption characteristics for heavy metals

  • Bachar Koubaissy*
  • , Joumana Toufaily
  • , Safaa Cheikh
  • , Malak Sayed Hassan
  • , Tayssir Hamieh
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Activated carbon derived from pine cones waste was prepared by carbonization at 450°C, activated by different activating agents: ZnCl 2, H 2 SO 4 and NaOH, and then pyrolyzed at 600°C. Adsorption of Cr VI and other heavy metals (Mn II, Fe II, Cu II) on activated carbons was investigated to evaluate the adsorption properties. Special attention was paid to the effects of carbon surface functionalities that were analyzed by FT-IR and zeta potential study. Moreover, XRD study of activated carbon was also carried out. Results had shown that activated carbon by NaOH was the best adsorbent for removal of chromium VI from wastewater. The solid-solution interaction was determined by analyzing the adsorption isotherms at room temperature at different pH. When pH is above 4, the removal fraction of Cr (VI) ions decreased with the increase of pH. The removal fraction of Cr (VI) ions decreased below pH 4. The preferable removal of Cu (II) over Mn(II) and Fe (II) could be due to its lower affinity to solvent.Pseudo-second order equation provided the better correlation for the adsorption kinetics data. Equilibrium isotherms were determined by Fowler-Guggenheim model.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)90-99
Number of pages10
JournalOpen Engineering
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Activated carbon
  • Chemical treatment
  • Surface properties
  • wastewater treatment
  • heavy metals

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