Author(s) :

A. D. Adamu, D. B. Adie.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

The presence of abundant agricultural wastes in our environment coupled with the attendant pollution they generate call for concern and as such their applications for removal of heavy metals from wastewater is very significant. Sugarcane bagasse was converted to activated carbon using both thermal and chemical methods. The sugarcane bagasse was carbonized at the temperature of 350oC at the heating rate of 10oC/min for the residence time of 1hour. It was then mixed with (1M) H3PO4 acid at the ratio of 2:1 stirring continuously for the period of 3hours after which it was filtered and dried in the electrical oven. The batch adsorption experiment was conducted under the initial cadmium concentration of: 5-25 mg/l, adsorbent mass of: 0.2-1.0 g, agitation time of: 10-120 mins, pH of: 2-10 and operating temperature of: 30-50oC. The batch adsorption experiment revealed the optimum initial cadmium concentration of 25 mg/l, adsorbent mass of 1.0 g, agitation time of 10 mins, pH of 4 and operating temperature of 30oC. In addition, the adsorption data fitted well to the Freundlich, Temkin and D-R model with Freundlich and D-R models having maximum adsorption capacities of: 2.0137 and 2.0140 mg/g, respectively. Similarly, the mean free energy of 1.1307 kJ/mol obtained suggests that the adsorption process was physical. However, the adsorption kinetic data fitted well to pseudo-second order; while the adsorption thermodynamic data revealed that the adsorption process was exothermic with corresponding △H value of: -5.080kJ/mol. It was concluded that the sugarcane bagasse activated carbon was good for effective removal of cadmium from wastewater.

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