ASSESSMENT OF SAWDUST ACTIVATED CARBON (SAC) IN THE TREATMENT OF AQUACULTURE EFFLUENT

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Department of Engineering

ABSTRACT
This study is aimed at the assessment of sawdust activated carbon in the treatment of aquaculture effluent with various objectives which includes the determination of the SAC properties, effluent parameters, effect of operating conditions and application of relevant adsorption isotherms. The sawdust was first precarbonized at 500?C, then impregnated with potassium carbonate (activating agent) and activated at 450?C in a furnace. The surface morphology of the sawdust activated carbon (SAC) was determined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) which showed a very porous media. It was further characterized using BET surface area at 77K, and the resulting surface area was 831.83?2/g. The acquaculture effluent (AE) was found to be very polluted compared to the NESREA discharge standard, in COD, TSS, BOD,NITRATES and lead(II) ion. An optimization studies was done using batch treatment process at varying dosage, time and initial concentrations, and the optimum treatment dosage and time were found to be 2g/l at 60minutes which gave an overall 83.33% reduction of COD, 90.80% reduction of BOD, 73.24% removal of nitrate(??3), 93.23% removal 0f TSS, and 99.35% removal of lead (Pb) ions. According to the ?2 values, the kinetic studies showed that the adsorption process was a pseudo second order reaction with a ?2 value of 0.99. After the assessment, it was found that among other uses of sawdust, it is also a good precursor for the production of activated carbon, which is has been found in this study to be a good treatment media for the treatment of the polluted aquaculture effluent prior to its disposal into the environment.