Preparing biochar-filter sand permeable reactive barrier for removal of phenol from contaminated groundwater

This study aims at the possibility of using wheat husks, as they are considered as waste and are widely available and cheap to prepare biochar in treating spills resulting from oil refineries of organic materials (or sanitary landfills) contaminated with phenol. All tests showed efficacy in removing phenol. Batch tests were performed, and the optimal operating conditions for these parameters pH, contact time, and sorbent dose were 4, 1 h, and 0.5 g/L, respectively, the 50 mg/L initial concentration for the maximum removal efficiency of 84%. The Langmuir isothermal model has an adsorption capacity of 840.3361mg/g. For phenol adsorption on biochar. Based on the results of FT-IR, SEM, EDS, and surface area (BET) images, it was found that wheat husks succeed as biochar in removing phenol because they contain large pores, high surface areas and a strong carbon bond that governs the removal process. COMSOL Multi-physics 3.5 developed the resolved model, which is able to plot the contaminant plume variation under the influence of flow rate, bed depth, and initial concentration with the adequate matching between measurements and predictions where R2 are values of 0.997663. The results show that the penetration point is obtained early in the continuous mode process by raising the flow rate, lowering the depth of the absorbent layer, and increasing the initial concentration of pollutants. As a result, it was found to be one of the reactive materials suitable for the permeable reactive barrier technology.