UTILIZATION OF ACTIVATED CARBON FROM LOCUST BEAN POD IN TREATMENT OF DYE EFFLUENT

Abstract

The increasingly poor quality of water- a fundamental requirement of all biological entities due to water pollution resulting from various environmental degradation, population growth and urbanization is alarming. Adsorption is one of the efficient primary methods that could be used to treat contaminants in water, particularly wastewater. A promising and environmentally friendly approach of contaminated water treatment that employ these processes involves the application of natural substances, which have gained popularity in the water treatment industry due to their advantage over chemical materials. Locust bean pod was exploited in this study as a natural adsorbent in wastewater treatment. The locust bean pod was carbonized and activated using standard method at varying temperatures. Physical and chemical properties of the adsorbent produced were investigated using proximate, Brunauer- Emmett- Teller (BET) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. 500ml of waste water sample was treated with 3.5g of the activated carbon produced. Physicochemical properties of wastewater were determined before and after the application of adsorbent. Result showed that the turbidity, pH, dissolved solid, biological oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand decreased from 1080 NTU, 10.50, 700.80 mg/l, 420.0 mg/l and 150.50 mg/l to 127 NTU, 8.40, 350.70 mg/l, 195.0 mg/l and 98.00 mg/l respectively, while dissolved oxygen increased significantly from 0.17 to 3.92 mg/l. Findings from this study shows that activated carbon from locust bean pod can be utilized in the treatment of wastewater (dye effluent), which will invariably reduce the cost of treatment.