PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE BASED ACTIVATED CARBON FOR THE TREATMENT OF CHROMIUM AND ZINC IONS FROM ELECTROPLATING EFFLUENT

Abstract

Sugarcane is cultivated in large quantity and it creates serious disposal problems. In light of the increased recognition of the health and environmental impacts of insufficient wastewater treatment, several measures need to be put in place to mitigate these impacts. This study reports the potential of sugarcane based activated carbon for the treatment of chromium and zinc ions from electroplating effluent. A preliminary study was done on the raw sugarcane bagasse through proximate and ultimate analysis and the thermo graphic analysis (TGA). The characterization of raw sugarcane (RSCB), modified sugarcane bagasse (MSCB) and Sugarcane Bagasse Activated Carbon (SCBAC) was carried out using Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-EmmettTeller (BET) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The proximate and ultimate analysis showed the composition of SCB a carbonaceous material. The TGA result showed stages of moisture loss, decomposition of hemicellulose and lignin. The BET surface area of RSB, MSCB and SCBAC were found to be 178 m2/g, 423 m2/g and 954.4 m2/g respectively. The FT-IR analysis showed the presence of hydroxyl, amine, carbonyl and phenolic groups, which are responsible for the adsorption of the Cr and Zn ions from the effluent. In the adsorption study, the individual and interaction between process parameters including contact time, pH of the solution, temperature and adsorbent dosage on removal efficiency of Cr and Zn ions were optimized by applying the response surface methodology combined with the central composite design. The Langmuir model fitted more adequately with regression coefficient (R2) closer to one and equilibrium parameter RL between zero & one and it better describes the adsorption process, indicating that the adsorption process is favorable, and a monolayer adsorption. The regression coefficient (R2) showed that the pseudo-second-order kinetics was closer to one and thus, have better fit to the kinetic behavior of the adsorption process. The thermodynamic parameters studied include; ΔG⁰which values were negtives, ΔS⁰were positives and ΔH⁰values were negatives for the adsorption process and thus, suggests that the process was spontaneous and exothermic