RESEARCH ARTICLE

Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 20 December 2008, p. 527-532

REMOVAL OF ENDOSULFAN FROM WATER USING OIL PALM SHELL ACTIVATED CARBON AND RICE HUSK ASH

YEE Nah Lim * ; MD GHAZALY Shaaban * ; CHUN Yang Yin **

ABSTRACT

In this study, the adsorption of endosulfan, a type of pesticide, onto agricultural waste-based adsorbents, namely, oil palm shell activated carbon (PSAC) and rice husk ash (RHA), was investigated. The as-received adsorbents were used for batch α- and β-endosulfan adsorption studies which included kinetics and equilibrium aspects at a constant solution pH of 5 and at a temperature of 25ºC. It was found that removal of β-endosulfan by both adsorbents was significantly more efficient than that of α-endosulfan indicating a high affinity of PSAC and RHA towards β-endosulfan. Interestingly, kinetic equilibrium for β-endosulfan adsorption onto PSAC was achieved after 30 min of contact time with a very high capacity of 418 mg g-1. The adsorption kinetics data fitted the pseudo-second order model well, implying chemisorption was the rate-controlling step. Equilibrium adsorption data for PSAC fit the Freundlich isotherm better than the Langmuir isotherm, suggesting the existence of multi-layer adsorption of endosulfan on a relatively heterogeneous PSAC surface. It was found that PSAC was efficient in removing β-endosulfan from water while it was conversely true for RHA.

KEYWORDS:


* Department of Civil Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering,
University of Malaya,
50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

** Faculty of Chemical Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi MARA,
40450 Shah Alam,
Selangor, Malaysia.
E-mail: yinyang@salam.uitm.edu.my