Adsorption of Phenol from Refinery Wastewater Using Rice Husk Activated Carbon

Industries such as petroleum refineries continuously generate large volumes of wastewater that contain high concentrations of phenol; therefore wastewater treatment as an integral part of their activities is required. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the applicability of rice husk activated carbon in an adsorption column for the treatment of phenolic refinery wastewater. Effects of bed depth (of the obtained rice husk activated carbon) and flow rate (of the waste water) on the sorption of phenol from the waste water were investigated. Column models such as Bed Depth Service Time, Thomas and Yoon Nelson models were employed to analyze the experimental data. The column adsorption experiment attained adsorption capacity of 28mg/g at breakthrough point of 0.5, flow rate of 4.5ml/min and bed depth of 7.5cm. The performance of the column adsorption was affected by bed depth and flow rate and models such as Thomas and Yoon Nelson could be employed in estimation of design parameters and scale-up operations during pilot or full scale application.