Activated carbon from corn (Zea mays) cobs as biofilter for piggery wastewater [manuscript]
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Date
2019
Authors
Maria Theresa R. Costales
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Abstract
Contamination of water from the discharge of waste from piggery farms is one of the main sources of pollutants found on surface waters such as rivers, lakers and so forth. In the Philippines, agricultural by-products such as corn cob contributes to the large amount of waste generated and hence there is a need to utilize this waste. Corn cobs as the natural precursor for the production of activated carbon were carbonized using the rice husk kiln, crushed to gradular from and sieved to 6mm mesh. Phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄) was used for the thermo-chemical activation at 500°C for 1hr. The activated carbon was characterized by their physico-chemical properties (% moisture, % ash and bulk density). The average bulk density, moisture and ash content were 5.89%, 11.065 and 0.320g/mL, respectively, all attained the desirable standard. The surface morphology test was used to compared the size and structure of the pores developed on corn cob charcoal and activated carbon. The slowest recorded operating time and filtration process was from Treatment 3 with 15 cm activated carbon height for 4.26 hr and 1.22 L/hr respectively and the rapid filtration was form Treatment 1 with 5 cm height for 1.68 hr and 0.47 L/hr filtering capacity. Based on the results of the analytical laboratory, 15cm thickness TSS adsorption gained the highest efficiency at 80.37% and the lowest removal was BOD at 72.67%. Treatment 3 showed the best results in terms of adsorptive capacity among the treatments. Statistical analysis showed that all the parameters had significant effect on the varying height of the activated carbon.