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Primary sewage sludge-derived activated carbon: characterisation and application in wastewater treatment

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Abstract

The present study deals with the characterization of primary sewage sludge-derived activated carbons which were used for phenol adsorption from the synthetic wastewater. The waste-derived adsorbents were prepared by a two-step process: chemical activation (with ZnCl2 and KOH) followed by pyrolysis. The mesoporous adsorbents were found to have BET surface area comparable to commercial activated carbon (surface area = 495–515 m2/g). The adsorption runs were performed in orbital shaker with synthetic phenolic wastewater (phenol concentration = 50–250 mg/L) to investigate the effect of various reaction parameters. The equilibrium phenol adsorption data could be described by Redlich–Peterson isotherm model and the pseudo first-order kinetic model exhibited the best fit to time-based adsorption data. The phenol adsorption was endothermic for all adsorbents. The performance of the thermally regenerated waste-derived adsorbents in the wastewater treatment was found to reduce significantly.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF), Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Sciences and Metallurgical Engineering (MEMS) of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai, India for their help in the analysis of adsorbents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Anirudh Gupta & Anurag Garg

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  1. Anirudh Gupta
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  2. Anurag Garg
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Correspondence to Anurag Garg.

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Gupta, A., Garg, A. Primary sewage sludge-derived activated carbon: characterisation and application in wastewater treatment. Clean Techn Environ Policy 17, 1619–1631 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-014-0895-4

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