Co-Adsorptive removal of Phenol and Cyanide using a novel, low cost Adsorbent: An Optimization Study

Abstract

The present study deals with the use of residual coal, an alternative, low cost adsorbent for the co-adsorptive removal of phenol and cyanide from synthetic waste water. The effect of pH, initial concentration, adsorbent dose and contact time on percentage removal was studied. Optimization was performed for maximizing the simultaneous phenol and cyanide adsorption capacity. A maximum of 50.09% phenol at an initial concentration of 200 mg/L and 78.89% cyanide at an initial concentration of 20 mg/L was removed at an optimum pH of 9 and adsorbent dose of 40 g/L. Time required to achieve equilibrium in case of phenol was 26 h and of cyanide was 32 h.