Microstructural characterization of white charcoal for rapid reduction of chemical oxygen demand and automatically adjust pH to neutral in wastewater treatment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to produce, characterize and apply white and black charcoal for wastewater treatment application. Characterization of charcoals, the results confirmed that white charcoal had higher thermal stability and carbon content than black charcoal. The other elemental analysis results showed that both black and white charcoal show the highest intensity of potassium content. The surface of black charcoal was rougher than the surface of white charcoal. The morphology from scanning electron microscope coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrophotometer (SEM-EDS) images demonstrated white charcoal shows a highly porous material, especially coconut shell white charcoal with small holes connected to large holes. X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) showed peak patterns of graphite. The specific surface area, total pore volume, and pore size of all charcoal were evaluated by the BET method. This result was a higher specific surface area of white charcoal than black charcoal. The coconut shell white charcoal had the highest specific surface area (458.80 m 2/g). All charcoals had an average pore size in the range from 1 to 2 nm, all charcoals had an average pore size in the range from 1 to 2 nm which was microporous materials. Both black and white charcoal were used as an adsorbent for the wastewater treatment from a chemistry laboratory building. The results indicated that white charcoal could neutralize the pH of wastewater after treatment in both acidity and alkalinity wastewater. After treatment, wastewater treated with white charcoal shows a higher level of %COD reduction than wastewater treated with black charcoal.

Keywords

• White charcoal
• Black charcoal
• Microstructure
• Small holes connected large holes
• Wastewater treatment
• COD reduction