The Pertinence of Microwave Irradiated Coconut Shell Bio-Sorbent for Wastewater Decolourization: Structural Morphology and Adsorption Optimization Using the Response Surface Method (RSM)

Mohammed Abdulsalam, Hasfalina Che Man, Aida Isma Idris, Zurina Zainal Abidin and Khairul Faezah Yunos
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Mohammed Abdulsalam: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
Hasfalina Che Man: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
Aida Isma Idris: Department of Chemical Engineering, Segi University, Kota Damansara Selangor 47810, Malaysia
Zurina Zainal Abidin: Departments of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
Khairul Faezah Yunos: Department of Food and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-19

Abstract: Palm oil mill effluent contains carcinogenic coloured compounds that are difficult to separate due to their aromatic structure. Though colour treatment using adsorption processes at lower pH (<4) have been reported effectual, due to its acidity the remediated effluent poses an environmental hazard as a result. Thus, the current study focused on achieving decolourization at neutral pH by enhancing the morphology of the coconut shell activated carbon (CSAC) using N 2 as activating-agent with microwave irradiation heating. The microwave pretreated and non-pretreated CSAC were characterized using scanned electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. A significant modification in the porous structure with a 66.62% increase in the specific surface area was achieved after the pretreatment. The adsorption experimental matrix was developed using the central composite design to investigate the colour adsorption performance under varied pH (6–7), dosage (2–6 g) and contact time (10–100 min). At optimum conditions of neutral pH (7), 3.208 g dosage and contact time of 35 min, the percentage of colour removal was 96.29% with negligible differences compared with the predicted value, 95.855%. The adsorption equilibrium capacity of 1430.1 ADMI × mL/g was attained at the initial colour concentration of 2025 ADMI at 27 °C. The experimental data fitted better with the Freundlich isotherm model with R 2 0.9851.

Keywords: microwave heating; bio-sorbent; characterization; adsorption; colour removal; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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