Activated carbon from empty fruit bunch of oil palm and its potential in Bisphenol-A removal

Abstract

Powdered activated carbon (PAC) based adsorption method is one of the promising techniques in the field of wastewater treatment due to its high efficiency, and less time consumption. Unfortunately, its application in water treatment is rather restricted due to high cost. This study used an abundant and locally available waste product generated from palm oil mill called Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) as an alternative substituent to produce activated carbon (AC). Alternative use of this waste not only gives economic solution but also reduces environment problems caused by the waste after being disposed of into landfills and left unused. The experimental design for production of EFB-AC was prepared using Design-Expert Software. The EFB-AC was produced inside a tube furnace where the effects of activation temperature, activation time, nitrogen gas flow were investigated. EFB- AC was chemically activated using Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) as activating agent under impregnation ratio of 3:1. The effectiveness of the EFB-AC produced in the removal of Bisphenol A (BPA) was determined. BPA is considered as a typical endocrine disrupting chemical which may influence human living systems. Effects of pH, AC-Dosage and contact time on the removal of BPA were investigated. The optimum conditions for preparing the activated carbon were found at temperature of 850C with activation time of 30 minutes and nitrogen flow gas at 90 mm/min. The results show that at contact time of 48 hours, AC-dosage 1.0 g and at pH 9.0, for EFB-AC gave optimum removal of BPA at 84.9%. For comparative study between EFB-AC and commercial AC, the removal of BPA was found at 84.9% and 96.2% respectively at 48 hours contact time, 1.0 g AC-dosage and at pH 9.0. The EFB-AC was analysed using SEM, EDX and FTIR to study the characterization and microstructure of the AC produced.