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Use of agro-waste of Trapa natans plant for removal of non-ionic surfactant from industrial wastewater
Author : Arundhati Khandelwal *a, Manisha Agrawal b and Dharm Pal c
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ABSTRACT
Demand of surfactant is rising day by day due to its multifaceted industrial applications. After use, the residual part of the surfactants gets disposed of into the water bodies without any prior treatment, which gives a toxic effect to the aquatic life. Present paper deals with the removal of nonionic surfactant octylphenol ethoxylate from industrial wastewater using agrowaste peel of Trapa natans. Experiments were performed through carbonized and non-carbonized peels of it. Carbonization of peel is executed in the lab in absence of oxygen at the furnace temperature 500ºC. Absorbance is measured with the help of UV-Visible spectrophotometer by cobalt thiocyanate active substances procedure. A series of concentrations of surfactant solutions were prepared in the range of 200–1000 ppm. Validation of the degree of adsorption of the surfactant was done with the three adsorption isotherm models namely; Langmuir, Dubinin-Radushkevich and Harkin-Jura. Out of these three adsorption isotherms the value of regression coefficient R2 for carbonized peel is highest for Dubinin-Radushkevich model. This is indicative of adsorption due to the formation of chemical bonds. A higher negative value of Gibb’s free energy for the carbonized peel favors the maximum adsorption process. Statistical analysis of the data was dealt with ANOVA test. From the obtained results it may be concluded that the agro-waste peel of Trapa natans has potential to remove octylphenol ethoxylate from the industrial wastewater. The removal efficiency of carbonized peel was found better than the non-carbonized peel.
KEYWORD
Trapa natans, agro-waste, surfactant, adsorption isotherms, Langmuir, Dubinin-Radushkevich, octylphenol ethoxylate