Palm oil mill effluent (POME) has become critical issue among the oil palm industries due to its high organic contents and other contaminants which results in dark colour, turbid and bad smell. POME that is not treated effectively will result in significant wastewater issues as it disposes to the environment. Adsorption is a promising technique to purify the wastewater and has a wide variety of potential adsorbents. It works by adhering the pollutants on the high porous of activated carbon. Therefore, activated carbon has been widely used due to the effectiveness to adsorb pollutants and easy to produce. Previous studies proved that adsorption using activated carbon has been an effective method for the treatment of POME. This paper presents the utilization of activated carbon from agricultural biomass wastes for POME treatment. The materials are renewable, low-cost and viable as precursors of the activated carbon. The adsorption efficiencies and mechanisms of the activated carbon are discussed and summarized for easy reference. Development of methods for synthesis may become great challenges in the future, as well as the regeneration of activated carbon.
Physicochemical activation has been popular currently due to the incredible surface area of activated carbon produced. In the process, the step of activation has a significant role in influencing the characteristics of activated carbon. Previously, several studies conducted one-step activation in which potassium hydroxide (KOH) was impregnated with the precursors derived from agricultural biomass and wastes. Currently, the materials have been interesting due to their renewable and low-cost properties. This paper reviews the recent studies regarding the variables and the effect of one-step activation towards properties of KOH-impregnated adsorbents which were synthesized from agricultural biomass and wastes. The variables of one-step activation and pore development are compared in this paper. It was found that the increase of pore characteristics follows the increased amount of KOH concentration, ratio, carbonizing temperature and time until reaching the optimum level of variables. One-step activation has been proved by the studies to the successful activation of activated carbon with different excellent surface area, even up to approximately 2800 m2/g. In the future, it will be a great challenge to develop the efficient processes of synthesizing activated carbon with improved optimization to achieve incredible and maximum results of the surface area.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.