Investigation of activated carbon made from Kelantan bamboo as an economical and effective adsorbent for wastewater treatment

Abstract

This study proposed an economical and effective adsorption technique for treating wastewater through local bamboo conversion into an activated carbon (AC) material called bamboo activated carbon (BAC). Schizostachyum Brachycladum bamboo samples harvested from Kelantan were oven-dried to 15% moisture content or less. The bamboo was powdered and proceeded with six hours of carbonization and pyrolysis at 550°C, 700°C, 800°C, and 900°C, respectively, followed with steaming process. The microscopic structure, crystallinity index, surface area and functional groups of AC were determined. In addition, this study used the iodine number to evaluate the BAC's adsorption capacity. The BAC was tested by the copper and zinc heavy metal ions in the aqueous solution and by the Atomic Adsorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) to examine the remaining elements in the solution. The elemental analysis disclosed high carbon, C content in the BAC. The FTIR result evidenced that the BAC's wavelengths varied between 1154.14 cm-1 and 3220.29 cm-1, hinting that the tertiary alcohol, alkyne functional group, and aliphatic primary amine were the functional group. The maximum BET surface area was 298.507m2g-1. Of note, the result found that the BAC's sample size and the BET surface area were inversely proportional. In contrast, the temperature and percentage of iodine absorption were directly proportional. The iodine number was 445 mgg-1 at 700°C and it raised 1.73 times as much to 770 mgg-1 when 900°C was used. For AAS analysis, the copper and zinc heavy metal ions in the aqueous solution demonstrated a high adsorption rate with 99.63% and 99.54%, respectively, when 45 μm BAC was considered. Both iodine and heavy metal ions tests showed that the BAC is an effective solution for wastewater treatment, which could be one of the many alternatives in helping the nation achieves water security in no time.