Adsorption Characteristics of Granular Activated Carbon from Coal and Carbon from Coconut Shell in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

Adsorption characteristics of phenol, p-nitrophenol, 2, 4-dichlorophenol, sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate and sodium ligninsulfonate for spherically granulated activated carbon from coal have been compared with those of a commercial activated carbon from coconut shell.
Spherically granulated activated carbon is inferior to commercial carbon for adsorption capacities of phenol, p-nitrophenol and 2, 4-dichlorophenol. But spherically granulated activated carbon is superior to coconut carbon for adsorption rates and capacities of large molecular adsobates such as sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate and sodium ligninsulfonate.
Effective diffusivities for phenot and sodium dodecylbenzetiesulfonate were calculated in terms Of the Boyd equation using the data of the adsorption rate obtained by agitating under the condition of intraparticle diffusion control. For spherically granulated activated, carbon, effective diffusivities of 220 me phenol and 150 me sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate are 1.9 x108 cm²/sec and 4.3 x 10- cm²/sec, respectively. These values are larger than those of commercial coconut carbon.
In fixed bed adsorption, the calculated break point agreed well with the experimental data.