Preparation, Characterization and Application of Activated Carbon Produced from Rice Husk and Maize Cob for the Adsorption of Disperse Azo Dye in a Fixed Bed
Authors: Abdulkareem K, Iyun ORA, Aderemi BO
DOI Info: N/A
ABSTRACT
In this work, low cost granular activated carbon was produced from maize cob (MC) and rice husk (RH). Calcination of the agrowastes at 500 oC was followed by phosphoric acid (H3PO4) treatment. The produced activated carbons (AC) were characterized for surface area and pore size using Brunauer -Emmett-Teller (BET) in a micromeritics ASAP 2020 V3 .04H. The adsorption potential of the granular composite activated carbon (GCAC) for pyridone (a disperse azo dye – C21H14CIN5O5S) removal from aqueous solution was investigated using a fixed-bed adsorption column. The effects of the inlet dye concentration (50–200 mg/L), feed flow rate (85-115.6 mL/min), activated carbon granular mass (15 - 60 g) and particle size (1.0 – 6.0 mm) on the breakthrough characteristics of the adsorption system were determined. Brunauer -Emmett-Teller (BET) method gave surface area of 796.8 m2/g, and average pore size of 32.67 Å for AC produced from 70% maize cob and 30% rice husk. The maximum adsorption capacity of 84.11 mg/g was obtained in the bed using 50 mg/L inlet dye concentration, 20 g adsorbent mass, 85.0 mL/min adsorbate flow rate and 1.0 mm adsorbent particle size for the MC: RH (70:30) combinations. The dynamic adsorption behaviour of the bed was tested using Adams–Bohart, Thomas, and Yoon–Nelson models. Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models displayed R2 values greater than 96% for most of the points investigated and hence, are preferred in this study. The GCAC was shown to be a suitable adsorbent for adsorption of disperse azo dye in a fixed-bed column system.
Affiliations: Department of Chemical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
Keywords: Activated Carbon, Disperse Azo Dye, Dynamic Models, Breakthrough Curve, Agrowastes
Published date: 2020/06/30
