Affiliations 

  • 1 Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia
  • 2 Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia. Electronic address: sumathi@utar.edu.my
  • 3 Faculty of Engineering, Kolej Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Genting Kelang, 53300, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
J Environ Manage, 2019 Oct 15;248:109302.
PMID: 31377539 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109302

Abstract

Palm oil sludge (POS) is an organic waste generated from the palm oil industry. POS causes environmental pollution if it is improperly disposed. In this study, the potential of activated POS biochar, as an adsorbent for the removal of SO2 gas was tested. POS biochar was physically activated using CO2 gas. The effects of activation preparation variables i.e. activation temperature (300-700 °C), activation time (30-150 min) and CO2 flow rate (100-500 ml/min) were investigated using design expert version 8.0.7.1 software. Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to develop a quadratic model to correlate the operating variables with the activated biochar adsorption capacity. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to identify the significant factors on the experimental design response. The optimum preparation conditions of activated POS biochar were found to be at activation temperature of 442 °C, activation time of 63 min and CO2 flow rate of 397 ml/min. The maximum adsorption capacity at the optimum conditions was recorded as 16.65 mg/g. The adsorption capacity increased significantly after the activation process. Characteristics of the activated POS biochar proposed that SO2 was physically adsorbed. Furthermore, it was found that the adsorption capacity can be further enhanced by increasing the reaction temperature to 100 °C or with 15% of relative humidity in the inlet gas. The prepared adsorbents can be regenerated by thermal treatment.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.