Sixteen bottom sediment samples collected from Qua-Iboe River estuary and associated creeks were analyzed for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Zn, Ni, pH, Organic carbon (orgC),and grain size in order to assess the current pollution status in sediment of the study area. Concentration data were processed using Pearson correlation analysis. Sediment pollution assessment was carried out using Enrichment factor, Geo-accumulation index and Modified degree of contamination. The calculated enrichment factor showed that the sediment was enriched with Cd, Zn, Cu and Pb. The results of geo-accumulation index (Igoe) indicated that sediments are unpolluted with Fe, moderately polluted with Cr, Cu, Pb, strongly polluted with Cd and extremely polluted with Ni. This was attributed mainly to oil contaminating wastes and metal scraps. The results of the modified degree of contamination (mC d ) revealed that the sediment of Qua Iboe estuary and associated creeks fall between 8 ≤ mC d ≤ 16 indicating very high degree of contamination.

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Cocosnucifera (coconut) shell powder was used as the adsorbents for the removal of phenol from aqueous solutions. Degradation efficiency has been evaluated using photocatalysis and adsorption processes at ambient temperature. Photolysis was performed to study the effect of light on the degradation of phenol at ambient temperature while adsorption process was carried out without utilizing solar illumination. Effect of initial concentrations of phenol (50, 75, 100 and 150 mg/l), TiO2 loading (4, 8, 16 and 20 %), and composite mass (adsorbent + TiO2) (1, 3, 5 and 8 g) were investigated using UV-Visible spectrophotometric technique. The results obtained indicate that phenol removal increases with time and concentration of the catalyst (TiO2) and decreases with increase in initial concentration of phenol and composite mass. Combination of UV irradiation with TiO2 loading gave a degradation efficiency ranging from 78.36-82.76 % while UV irradiation with composite (catalyst-Cocosnucifera) mass gave a degradation efficiency ranging from 63.12-79.32 %. The efficiency of the processes of degradation of phenol followed the trend: photocatalysis>photolysis> adsorption. The kinetics studies of the degradation fitted the Langmuir and pseudo-second-order models.