Treatment Of Effluent Containing Hazardous Compounds using Activated Carbon

Abstract

In the last few years, attention towards the water pollution has been increased, due to regulatory concerns and stringent environmental policies. Industries are compelled to treat their effluents as per the specifications given by pollution control board before discharge it into the natural resources. Generally physical-biological treatments are provided to the effluents coming from various industries. Some specific effluents from industrial production processes may be difficult to purify by traditional waste water technology. These specific pollutants like phenols are not easily degradable are commonly toxic so their discharge can cause damage to the environment, and achieving legal purification levels is often very difficult. Adsorption processes have been shown to be very effective methods for the removal of these pollutants. There are various methods available for the treatment of phenol in waste water like, photo catalytic degradation, extraction, biosorption, wet air oxidation, biological oxidation, advanced oxidation, adsorption and membrane processes. Adsorption is found very effective and easy treatment for phenolic pollutants. In this report, investigation of the adsorption capacity is done for various adsorbents for removing of phenolic contaminants from wastewater. The adsorbents considered are activated carbon, modified clays of bentonite, unmodified bentonite clay, treated fly ash and saw dust carbon. The representative contaminant used is phenol. The kinetic data are produced for the activated carbon. Effect of various parameters like adsorbent dose and initial concentration are studied for phenol adsorption on activated carbon. The equilibrium results are correlated by various isotherms like Freundlich isotherm, Langmuir isotherm and Tempkin isotherm. The results of this study are applicable to the continuing development of adsorption wastewater treatment technology.