The potential of palm frond-based magnetic biochar for peat water treatment

Abstract

Riau Province has the largest palm plantation in Indonesia. The amount of palm plantation waste is quite large, so it needs to be managed so as not to pollute the environment. Palm plantation waste has a high lignocellulose content, so it has the potential to be used as a raw material for making biochar. Biochar has high effectiveness in removing organic substances from water. Despite its high adsorption capacity, biochar is difficult to separate from water due to its very small particle size. To solve this problem, magnetic biochar can be used. Magnetic biochar is the result of the magnetization of biochar with the addition of chemicals containing metal ions and pyrolyzed with little or no oxygen. The synthesis of magnetic biochar is strongly influenced by the impregnation ratio and pyrolysis temperature. This study aims to synthesize magnetic biochar from palm fronds by varying the impregnation ratio, pyrolysis temperature, and particle size and testing its ability to adsorb color and natural organic matter in peat water. Magnetic biochar was synthesized by FeCl3 impregnation ratios of 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7, pyrolysis temperatures 450°C; 500°C with N2 gas flow, and particle size escaped sieves of 0.595 and 0.177 mm. The adsorption test results showed synthetic magnetic biochar with an impregnation ratio of 0.7, pyrolysis temperature of 500°C and particle size of 0.177 mm had the highest efficiency in removing colors and natural organic substances of 71.8% and 78.6%, respectively. From the proximate test, the magnetic biochar moisture content was 0.5%, the ash content was 3.37%, and the volatile content was 12.02%. This result has met the quality of technical activated carbon in SNI 06-3730-1995. The methylene blue absorption was 12.4 mg/g. This value is below the requirements of SNI 06-3730-1995. The results showed that magnetic biochar synthesized from palm frond has the potential to be used as an adsorbent in peat water treatment.