Commercial activated carbon modified with sulfuric acid: a potential permeable reactive barrier material for in-situ remediation of Cr(VI) from groundwater

摘要

In this study, removal of Cr(VI) from synthetic groundwater by adsorption onto commercial activated carbon (CAC) made up of coconut shell is investigated in batch studies. Surface modification of CAC with sulfuric acid is also conducted to evaluate its removal performance. It is evident that CAC chemically modified with sulfuric acid (sulfuric-treated CAC) demonstrates higher Cr(VI) removal efficiency than non-treated CAC in dealing with contaminated groundwater with the pH is about 7.0, suggesting that sulfuric-treated CAC is suitable for the in-situ remediation of Cr(VI) contaminated groundwater. Adsorption of Cr(VI) is strongly affected by pH, the granular sulfuric-treated CAC exhibits the highest Cr(VI) adsorption capacity at pH 1.5 and the maximum Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of which estimated with the Langmuir model was 8.24mg/g.