Rice (Oryza sativa) husk as a low-cost adsorbent alternative for the removal of copper (II) ions from aqueous solutions

Date

6-2015

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Johanna Marie R. Dikitanan

Abstract

Rice husk, an agricultural waste, was modified to produce and adsorbent alternative for the removal of copper (II) ions from aqueous solutions. Chemical modification was done by treating the rice husk with H3PO4. This study investigated the effect of pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage and adsorbent particle size on the adsorption of copper (II) ions onto modified rice husk. It was observed that among four the four factors, pH, contact time and the interactions between these factors are the only factors that significantly affects the sorption process. The highest removal efficiency of copper ions, 64.9853% occurred at pH6, adsorbent dose of 10 g/L with particle size of 390nm and contact time of 120 minutes. Adsorption isotherm experiments were carried out at room temperature and the data obtained from batch studies were fitted with Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich models. Among the four isotherms, the data best fit Freundlich isotherm with R^2 value of 0.779. The maximum adsorption capacity of the sorption system was found to be 90.9091 mg Cu^2+/g rice husk. The modified rice husk was compared to commercially available activated carbon and showed a lower copper removal efficiency of 66.7220% as compared to 95.5092% for activated carbon.

Language

English

Location

UPLB College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Call Number

LG 993.5 2015 E62 /G83

Document Type

Thesis

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