Biosorption of Phenols

Phenols are an important group of organic pollutants present in many industrial effluents such as petro-chemicals, textiles, tanneries; gasification units etc. The phenols should not exceed 0.01µg/l, 1mg/l in drinking & in industrial waters, respectively. But in most of the cities the situation is alarming where the phenol concentrations are more often crossed 8–10 ppm. For removal of the excessive phenols, adsorption became the most favored process because of its feasibility. An alternative to the conventional activated carbon for the reduction of phenols that would reduce the costs considerably has been attempted in the present study to remove the phenols. Biosorption was attempted using locally available and comparatively cheaper activated carbons viz., Rice Husk Carbon (RHC), Casuarina Wood Carbon (CWC) and Saw Dust Carbon (SDC). The removal of phenols showed an increase in all the three activated carbons with the increase of concentrations. It was observed that the SDC showed better performance compared to the RHC and CWC at lower concentrations of the phenols. The percentage removal of the phenols proved to be very good at higher concentration. On the whole the selected activated carbons have shown the efficiency of removal of phenols in the order: RH