Adsorption of phenol onto rice straw biowaste for water purification

The adsorption technique has been studied using waste rice straw to adsorb phenol from aqueous solutions at room temperature. Batch adsorption studies were carried out under varying experimental conditions of contact time, operational temperature, pH of phenol solution, initial phenol concentration, adsorbent dose, and particle size. The time to reach equilibrium was found to be 3 h. Results showed that the equilibrium data for phenol-sorbent systems fitted the Freundlich model and Langmuir model within the concentration range studied. Adsorbed phenol could be regenerated by desorption with the help of 1M NaOH. The studies showed that the rice straw can be used as an efficient adsorbent material for removal of phenol and phenolic compounds from water and wastewater.