The Potential of Oil Palm Frond Biochar for the Adsorption of Residual Pollutants from Real Latex Industrial Wastewater

Oil palm fronds (OPF) were used to prepare biochar products using slow pyrolysis in a top-lit updraft furnace at 438 degrees C under oxygen-limited conditions. OPF biochar showed a BET surface area of 68.98 m(2) g(-1) and a strong peak of O-H and C=C using FT-IR analysis. The potential of OPF biochar as a bioadsorbent for removing residual pollutants from concentrated latex industrial effluent was investigated in batch mode. At the dosage of 15 g L-1 of OPF biochar and the contact time of 4 h, chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), sulfate, and sulfide removal were achieved at 41.2%, 87.6%, 58.8%, and 56.8%, respectively. The pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order reactions were compared to describe the sulfate adsorption kinetics on OPF biochar. The pseudo-second-order model demonstrated a good fit to the experimental data with an equilibrium adsorption capacity of 12.85 mg g(-1). In addition, the adsorption isotherms were carried out using the Langmuir and Freundlich models. It was observed that the predicted values from the Freundlich isotherm model showed good agreement with the experimental data. The study results established that OPF biochar as a cost-effective absorbent could be applied to the removal of contaminants from real latex industrial wastewater. [GRAPHICS]

Automated summary

Oil palm fronds were pyrolyzed to produce biochar, which exhibited a high BET surface area and prominent functional groups. The biochar demonstrated effective removal of pollutants from latex industrial effluent, with significant reductions in COD, SS, sulfate, and sulfide. The kinetic and equilibrium adsorption studies suggested that the pseudo-second-order reaction and Freundlich isotherm model were suitable for describing the adsorption process.