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COD removal from
industrial wastewater using activated carbon prepared from
animal horns
Emmanuel O. Aluyor and
Olalekan A. M. Badmus
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of
Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
eoaluyor@yahoo.com.
Tel: +2348023350667, +2348055657745.
Accepted 14 August, 2008 |
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The present study was undertaken to compare the adsorption
efficiency of activated carbon prepared from animal horns (AHC),
which is both a waste and a pollutant and a commercial
activated carbon (CAC) with respect to uptake of the organic
components responsible for the chemical oxygen demand (COD)
of industrial wastewater. The adsorption process was
examined in terms of its equilibria and its kinetics. The
effect of pH, contact time and adsorbent dose were
investigated. The most effective pH was found to be 5 for
AHC and 6 for CAC. The equilibrium data for COD removal
fitted the Linear, Langmuir and the Freundlich models.
The mechanisms of the rate of adsorption of COD were
analysed using the pseudo-second-order model. The model
provided a very high degree of correlation of the
experimental adsorption rate data suggesting that this model
could be used in design applications.
Key words: Adsorption, batch, kinetics, Langmuir, Freundlich,
adsorbent.
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