Studies on Adsorption Characteristics of Corn Cobs Activated Carbon for the Removal of Oil and Grease from Oil Refinery Desalter Effluent in a Downflow Fixed Bed Adsorption Equipment

Abstract

The discharge of oil and grease (O&G) containing effluent without treatment may contaminate the aquatic environs and freshwater. The removal of O&G from simulated refinery desalter effluent (SRDE) by activated carbon (AC) originated from chemical activation/carbonization of corn cobs (CCs) was investigated through fixed-bed column studies. The corn cobs activated carbon (CCAC) was characterized to determine its physicochemical properties, and the functional groups presently active on it partaking in the column adsorption process. The CCAC size (150, 300 and 600 µm), initial adsorbate concentration (200, 300 and 400 mg/L), and bed height (100, 200 and 300 mm) were varied to observe their influence on the adsorption of O&G and breakthrough time (τ) at a constant flow rate of 10.5 mL/min in a 10 mm diameter column of length: 60 mm. The removal of O&G from SRDE was inspected using the Bohart-Adams (B-A) and Yoon-and-Nelson (Y-N) kinetic models. Breakthrough time and %O&G removal decreased with increasing CCAC particle size and feed concentration and improved with rising bed height (BH). The void fractions (ε) at BHs of 100, 200 and 300 mm were 0.0247, 0.0124 and 0.0082, respectively. The ideal residence time () was 4.49 min. The B-A model yielded the highest degree of fit to the data than the Y-N model with R 2 within 0.8217 and 0.9771. This means that the B-A model can be used to predict the breakthrough curve of any desired values for the present study. This work also revealed that CCs could be packed in a fixed-bed column for O&G reduction from refinery desalter effluent.

A Water Purification System using Locally Sourced Materials and Removal of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon in Contaminated Water

“…When the concentration of suspended particles in water increases there is a tendency that the amount of sunlight penetrating the water surface to decrease hence turbidity increases [14]. Water can be considered to be dangerous to aquatic life if it is highly turbid [20] [25] however, it will not be correct to think that clear water is healthy always [19].…”

“…The total suspended solid (TSS) is a measure of the undissolved solids in a solution which indicates the concentration of Total solids (TS) and (TDS) in water [14]. Table 1 shows the initial concentration of TSS as 4500mg/L and after treatment, the TSS was observed to have decreased for filters A, B, C, and D as 3832, 2100,1500 and 1300 mg/l respectively, while the control sample was found to be 1000mg/L.…”

“…Table 1 shows the initial concentration of TSS as 4500mg/L and after treatment, the TSS was observed to have decreased for filters A, B, C, and D as 3832, 2100,1500 and 1300 mg/l respectively, while the control sample was found to be 1000mg/L. The ability of the oil to attract particulate matter to itself causing a thick layer to be formed on the surface of the water may be responsible for the increases in TSS and TS [23] The susceptibility levels of oxidation of organic and inorganic substances present in water bodies, sewage, and industrial effluents are often analyzed using chemical oxygen demand (COD) [14] [22]. From Table 2, the COD for untreated water samples appeared to be higher (205.0mg/L) but it was observed to reduce gradually by significant amounts as the filtration process went on for filters A, B, C, D, and the control.…”

Adsorption of Oil and Grease in Wastewater using Activated Carbon Derived from Sewage Sludge

“…Biomass wastes have been developed as adsorbent material because it is affordable, sustainable, and renewable. Natural adsorbents had high removal efficiency for oil and grease, such as sugarcane bagasse of 63,4% [15], the banana pith of 97% [16], corn cobs of 60.38% [17], and palm kernel shells of 99.89% [18]. Moringa oleifera reached the oil and grease adsorption capacity of 294.41 mg/g [19].…”

Study of Sorption Kinetics of Doxycycline on pH Sensitive Hydrogel-based Graft Copolymers of Chitosan/Arabinogalactan/ Gummiarabic with Vinyl Monomers

“…Separation of Dox from polluting water to prevent such adverse effects is an actual topic. Research on its adsorption of Dox on organic, inorganic and hybrid polymeric materials can be found in the literature [15][16][17][18][19][20] .…”