PHENOL REMOVAL FROM WATER USING BIOCHAR AND ACTIVATED CARBON FROM ALBIZIA: AN INVASIVE PLANT EVALUATION

摘要

Examining the performance of carbon products of various activation levels sometimes play important role, especially to determine the operating conditions of large scale activated carbon manufacturing plants. This study compares the removal performance of phenol from water using biochar and two physically (steam) activated carbons (having two different activation levels) produced from the same biomass, Albizia, an invasive plant. First, biochar was produced from Albizia by pyrolysis process at 850 °F. This biochar was then physically activated at 1500 °F with two different activation times (20 minutes and 35 minutes). The iodine number (an indicator of adsorbent quality, surface area and porosity) of each of these three products, biochar and two activated carbons were determined to be 132 mg/g, 835 mg/g and 1103 mg/g respectively. Batch kinetic experiments and isotherm studies were performed to compare the effect of activation levels of activated carbons (iodine number of 1103 mg/g and 835 mg/g) with biochar (used as base-line with iodine number of 132 mg/g) on phenol adsorption. Batch kinetic studies showed that phenol removal can be increased more than 1.5 times with a target dosage range 200 mg/L to 400 mg/L if activated carbons are used rather than biochar. The equilibrium data represented by Freundlich isotherm model also supported the above results showing the enhanced performance of activated carbon compared to biochar on phenol removal.