Biosorption of heavy metals in leachate by using coconut shell activated carbon as an adsorbent / Nabilah Adila Mohd Tajudin

Abstract. Introduction: Activated carbon produced from coconut shell was used to remove Cadmium, Copper and Manganese from the Panchang Bedena Landfill’s leachate. The activated carbon coconut shell was produced by pyrolysis process. Objective: The objective of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of adsorbent (Activted Carbon Coconut Shell) on removing the heavy metals (Cd, Cu and Mn) from Panchang Bedena Landfill’s Leachate. Methodology: The adsorbent was prepared by pyrolysis process (pyrolysis in tube furnace at 500-800 o C for one to two hours). The samples leachate from the Panchang Bedena landfill was collected for characterized for three weeks in order to get the average data/results. Batch adsorption experiment was conducted to examine the effect of contact time and pH on adsorption of Cadmium, Copper and Manganese from the leachate. Equation of heavy metal removal is used to get the percentage of heavy metal removal. Results: The obtained result showed that, the adsorption of the metal ions was pH and Contact time dependent. The removal percentage of heavy metals with in the varying contact time 20 minute, 40 minute, 60 minute and 80 minute was different for every heavy metals. For copper, the optimum removal of heavy metal was at 80 minutes contact time (90.84%). Differ from copper, for cadmium, the optimum removal percentage was at 60 minutes with 54.38% removal. Lastly, for heavy metal manganese, 80 minutes (56.93%) was the optimum time for removal of the heavy metal. Next, the removal percentage of heavy metals with in the varying pH (pH 2, pH 4, pH 6 and pH 8) also different for every heavy metals. For copper, the optimum removal of heavy metal was at pH 6 (79.96 %). For cadmium, the optimum removal percentage was at pH 8 with 55.56% removal. Lastly, for heavy metal manganese, pH 8 (56.93%) was the optimum pH for removal of the heavy metals. Conclusion: The study showed that activated carbon prepared from coconut shell can be efficiently used as low cost alternative for removal of metal ion.