Locally Derived Activated Carbon From Domestic, Agricultural and Industrial Wastes for the Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent

Abstract

Adsorption is applicable in preference to other conventional methods due to high treatment efficiency of the adsorbents for the remediation of pollutants of wastewater at low concentration. Activated carbon is widely applicable for the treatment of varieties of wastewater as alternative to other types of adsorbent materials such as activated alumina and silica gel because of the ability to readily provide active pore sites for the attachment of solutes from the effluent. However, the application of commercial activated carbon is very expensive for research. This chapter discusses the remediation of the pollutants in the effluent using adsorbent materials as a replacement for the commercial activated carbon. In addition, the chapter also discusses the combination of adsorbent materials as composite based on their hydrophobic and hydrophilic characteristics. The chapter also explains the physical and chemical properties of adsorbent material that can affect the optimum reduction of the target pollutants from the effluent as well as optimization techniques such as the application of central composite design using response surface methodology and the use of conventional optimization techniques. Also the chemical characteristics of the adsorbents including the functional groups, point of zero charge and the chemical composition of the adsorbents.