ARTICLE IN PRESS

INVERSE VULCANISED POLYSULPHIDE ADSORBENT FROM WASTE COOKING PALM OIL FOR Cu2+ REMOVAL

MOHD FAIZAL ALI1; NANCY NUBUR LIBAT1; HANNAH NISA ADAWIYAH1; ABDULLAH NAYEEM1,2 and JUN HASLINDA SHARIFFUDDIN 1,3*

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2024.0009
Received: 27 July 2023   Accepted: 27 November 2023   Published Online: 29 January 2024
ABSTRACT

Heavy metals are considered to be toxic to humans. Commonly produced by petrochemical plants and pesticide productions, various techniques have been utilised to treat wastewater contaminated with heavy metal such as copper (Cu2+). This article focuses on using adsorption by utilising polysulphide adsorbent to treat wastewater via inverse vulcanisation. The huge amount of waste cooking palm oil (WCO) that is generated daily in Malaysia has motivated the study to produce a low-cost adsorbent with high removal efficiency. The polysulphide adsorbent was prepared with sulphur powder and waste cooking oil with a ratio of 9:1. The effect of contact time, initial Cu2+ concentration, and adsorbent dosage were studied using a batch adsorption process. The highest removal efficiency was 77.81% obtained while using 5 g of adsorbent dosage to treat 5 mg/L of Cu2+ aqueous solution. The Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm was used for modelling Cu2+ adsorption in an aqueous medium which was modelled best by the Langmuir isotherm. Overall, these results confirmed polysulphide as a low-cost and potential adsorbent to remove Cu2+ from wastewater.

KEYWORDS:


1 Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology,
Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah,
Lebuhraya Persiaran Tun Khalil Yaakob,
26300 Gambang, Kuantan Pahang, Malaysia.

2 Department of Soil Sciences and Agri-food Engineering,
Université Laval, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6 Canada.

3 Centre for Sustainability of Mineral and
Resource Recovery Technology (Pusat SMaRRT),
Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah,
Lebuh Persiaran Tun Khalil Yaakob,
26300, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia.

* Corresponding Email: junhaslinda@umpsa.edu.my