Yahya, Ezra Athira
(2014)
Utilization of corn cob as a low cost
biosorbent for the remediation of
carbofuran.
Project Report.
Universiti Sains Malaysia.
(Submitted)
Abstract
The potential of corn cob as a natural low-cost biosorbent for the removal of
carbofuran from the aqueous solution has been investigated. The effects of
modification agents, modification ratio, adsorbent dosage, initial concentration and
contact time, pH and temperature on the adsorption process were carried out. Sodium
carbonate was identified as the best modification agent, with the adsorption uptake for
carbofuran of 142.0 mg/g respectively. Modification ratio (MR) of 1.5 was identified
as the best MR. The optimum adsorptive uptake and adsorptive removal of carbofuran
are denoted at 148.82 mg/g and 74.77%, respectively at the adsorbent dosage of 0.3 g
increasing the initial concentration of showed an increase of adsorption uptake and
removal efficiency with prolonging the contact time. Maximum carbofuran removal
was observed at pH 2.0. The physical and chemical characterization was carried out,
FTIR spectra indicated the presence of bonded OH-, -CH2 and —CH3, C=O, C=C, NH,
asymmetric and symmetric C-O-H, C-O-C and glycosidic Cl-H deforming with ring
vibration on the NazCCL modified adsorbent. The elemental analysis illustrated that
the content of C, O, H, N and S was 48.77%, 42.89%, 7.32%, 1.99%, and 0.03%
respectively, while proximate analysis revealed that the ash, volatile and moisture
content was 7.56%, 86.53% and 5.91%. Among the tested isotherm model, Langmuir
model provided the better correlation, R2 and RMSD of 0.998 and 0.639, respectively,
with a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 149.15 mg/g at the operating
temperature of 30°C. The calculated AG° was -2.322 J/mol, -0.893 J/mol, and 0.377
J/mol; AH° and AS° were -42.23 J/mol and -135.10 J/mol, respectively. The negative
value of AH° indicated the exothermic nature of the adsorption interaction. These
results can be helpful in designing a batch mode system for the removal of carbofuran
from dilute wastewater. The findings revealed the potential of modified corn cob as a
low economical and eco-friendly biosorbent as compared to the commercial
adsorbents.
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