Adsorption of phenol onto Banana Peels Activated Carbon

The present paper reports adsorption of phenol onto Banana Peels Activated Carbon (BPAC). The effect of adsorbent dose ( m ), initial pH ( pH 0 ), contact time ( t ), initial phenol concentration ( C o ) and temperature ( T ) on the adsorption of phenol has been studied using batch experiments. The study revealed that about 83% phenol gets removed at an initial concentration of 50 mg/l, whereas the removal is 60% at an initial concentration of 500 mg/l. The phenol uptake of 6.98 and 48.58 mg per gram of BPAC at respective concentrations was found at an optimum dose of 6 g/l at 303 K. The optimum pH and contact time were found to be 6 and 60 minutes respectively. The pseudo second order kinetic model found best representing the kinetic study. Toth and Redlich-Peterson models were found best suited for describing the adsorption equilibrium data. From thermodynamic study it is confirmed that, phenol adsorption decreases with increase in temperature and is spontaneous and exothermic in nature.