Removal of phenol and phosphate from aqueous solutions using activated carbons prepared from oily sludge through physical and chemical activation

Abstract

Preparation and characterization of activated carbons (ACs) from oily sludge by physical and chemical activation using steam, ZnCl2 and FeCl3 were investigated. The characteristics of produced adsorbents were determined by iodine number, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) equation, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy analyses. Batch adsorption experiments for phenol and phosphate were performed to evaluate the efficiency of adsorbents. The optimum porous structure of adsorbents with a BET surface area of 1,259 m2 g−1, total pore volume of 1.22 cm3 g−1 and iodine number of 994 mg g−1 was achieved by ZnCl2 activation at 500 °C and impregnation ratio of 1:1. The adsorption data were well fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2>0.99) and Freundlich isotherm (R2>0.99). The maximum adsorption capacity of phenol (238 mg g−1) and phosphate (102 mg g−1) based on the Langmuir model was achieved at pH of 6.0 and adsorbent dose of 1 g L−1. Thermodynamic parameters were negative and showed that adsorption of phenol and phosphate onto the AC was feasible, spontaneous and exothermic. The results suggested that prepared AC was an effective adsorbent for removal of phenol and phosphate ions from the polluted water.

Review on Activated Carbons by Chemical Activation with FeCl3

“…The maximum adsorption capacity was 185 mg•g −1 , a value comparable to or higher than those obtained with other activated carbon obtained from biomass waste by other activation procedures [114][115][116]. Mojoudi et al [74] analyzed the adsorption of phenol and phosphate using activated carbons from oily sludge obtained through physical and chemical activation. The carbon obtained by FeCl 3 activation showed higher adsorption capacities than those physically activated or activated with ZnCl 2 at similar values of surface area.…”

“…For instance, Oliveira et al [67] obtained an activated carbon with high porosity from coffee husks at a very low activation temperature of 280 • C. Besides, Bedia et al [72] synthesized activated carbons with very high values of surface area when using Tara gum as a carbonaceous precursor. In contrast, Mojoudi et al [74] analyzed the activation of oil sludge. The resulting carbons showed slightly lower surface area values than those observed in the general trend.…”

Performance and dynamic modeling of a continuously operated pomace olive packed bed for olive mill wastewater treatment and phenol recovery

“…2 (c & d) and the parameters are provided in Table S3 (in the Supplementary material). The Langmuir isotherm provided the highest correlation (R 2 = 0.9975) for PCs adsorption, indicating that adsorption sites are assumed to be energetically homogeneous, and significant PCs monolayer coverage on the outer bead surface is formed without any interaction between the PCs (adsorbed molecules) (Mojoudi et al, 2019). Therefore, the monolayer saturation capacity is 114 mg g −1 beyond which no further adsorption can take place, but full-scale, supplementary experiments (adsorption kinetics) are needed to accurately predict the adsorption capacity of phenolic compounds.…”

Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of Ag-Biochar Composite for Sono-Adsorption of Phenol

“…It is water-soluble, acidic, and easily mixes from different sources, such as petroleum refinery, textile, paint, pulp, medicine, leather, dye, pesticide, and pharmaceutical industries, into wastewater (Ali et al, 2018;Younis et al, 2020;Hamad, 2021). Phenolic compounds are categorized as one of the most hazardous compounds in the environment (Hejazi et al, 2019;Mojoudi et al, 2019;Pantić et al, 2021), and phenol is chosen as the model pollutant in this study because it has been listed as a priority pollutant due to its toxicity and hard biodegradability once it is discharged into the natural environment. The high toxicity and low biodegradability of phenol pose a severe threat to the environment, even in low concentrations (Alnasrawy et al, 2021).…”