Preparation and charactersiation of low cost adsorbent from groundnut foliage by chemical activation

Effective treatment and management of wastewater and solid waste are the major challenges growing at an alarming rate in today's world. The aim of the present study was to find the feasibility of utilizing agro-based waste (groundnut foliage) as a low cost adsorbent for dye laden waste watertreatment. Groundnut foliage was collected from different villages in Villupuram district, Tamil nadu and was converted into an activated carbon by chemical activation method. Activation was done with different activating conditions (activating agents, impregnation ratio and activation temperature). Methylene blue numberand Iodine number for prepared activated carbon was determined using standard procedure. The optimized activation condition for groundnut foliage activated carbon was selected based on the yield (%), Methylene blue number and Iodine number. Batch adsorption studies were done using methylene blue as adsorbate to find the effects of adsorption parameters. Adsorption isotherm models like Langmuirand Freundlich were used to analyse the suitability ofequilibrium data. Activated carbon was prepared using concentrated H3PO4 as activating agent with ratio of 1:2 at 600°C has better percentage of yield (> 45%), Methylene blue value (27 mg g-1) and Iodine value (1143 mg g-1) when compared with activated carbon prepared using ZnCI2 and KOH as activating agent. For 100 mg l-1 of methylene blue dye concentration and at 6 pH in 30 °C, about 89% of methylene blue dye removal was adsorbed with 0.25 g ofgroundnutfoliage activated carbon.Adsorption followed the Langmuirmodel. Low cost adsorbent prepared using groundnut foliage (agro-based waste) has desired properties ofadsorbent and can be effectively used in dye laden wastewatertreatment.