Removal of Bisphenol A from Aqueous Solution by Activated Carbon Derived from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch

Abstract The potential of the activated carbon pre-pared from the empty fruit bunch of oil palm wastes to remove bisphenol A (BPA) from aqueous media was investigated. The experiments were performed by vary-ing the contact time, activated carbon dose, initial BPA concentration, and pH of the solution. The Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm models were employed to discuss the adsorption behavior. The equi-librium data were perfectly represented by the Langmuir isotherm with R2 of 0.9985. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of the activated carbon was found to be 41.98 mg/g. Kinetic studies indicated that the adsorp-tion process followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic with a rate constant of 0.3×10−3/min. The activated carbon was characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, and field emission scanning electron microscopy analyses. The results of the present study indicate that the activat-ed carbon prepared from the empty fruit bunch is a promising candidate as a low-cost bio-adsorbent for the removal of BPA from aqueous solution