Fixed bed adsorption column studies for the removal of aqueous phenol from activated carbon prepared from sugarcane bagassa

Abstract

Fixed bed adsorption has become a frequently used industrial application in wastewater treatment processes. Various low cost adsorbents have been studied for their applicability in treatment of different types of effluents. In this study, the potential of activated carbon derived from sugarcane bagasse was studied for the removal of aqueous phenol in a fixed column. Sugarcane bagasse was thermally activated under 600 °C in absence of air. A series of batch experiments were performed in order to identify the appropriate adsorption isotherm. Both Langmuir and Freundlich equilibrium isotherms were analyzed according to the experiment data and related parameters were estimated. Results revealed that the Langmuir isotherm provides the best fit with experimental data. Fixed bed experiments were performed and, breakthrough curves were drawn by varying activated carbon bed height. Accordingly the ideal breakthrough curves (IBC) were prepared and bed capacity (BC), length of the unused bed (LUB), the time required for full bed exhaustion at infinite rapid adsorption TS and the breakthrough times Tb were calculated for each scenarios.