Development of chitosan based adsorbent for the removal of residual oil from palm oil mill effluent (POME)

The focus of this research was to investigate and study the modified crosslinked chitosan beads as an adsorbent to adsorb the excessive residue oil from an oily wastewater. Palm oil mill effluent (POME) from the local palm oil mill was used as a sample of an oily wastewater. Raw chitosan present som...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hernawati, Lahading
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/3175/1/CD5992_HERNAWATI_BINTI_LAHADING.pdf
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Summary:The focus of this research was to investigate and study the modified crosslinked chitosan beads as an adsorbent to adsorb the excessive residue oil from an oily wastewater. Palm oil mill effluent (POME) from the local palm oil mill was used as a sample of an oily wastewater. Raw chitosan present some limitations such as unsatisfactory mechanical properties, poor heat resistance and soluble in dilute acid aqueous solution. Crosslinking has been proposed in this study to overcome such weakness. Three types of crosslink agent, namely glutaraldehyde (GLA), ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE) and epichlorohydrin (ECH) were used for this purpose. Series of batch adsorption experiments were carried out using different conditions and parameters. The controlled variables were adsorbent dosage, agitation rate, contact time and pH. A detailed batch study on chitosan flakes and the crosslinked chitosan beads with respect to its adsorption equilibrium, isotherm and kinetic study were also carried out. The best removal of residue oil was accomplished using chitosan flakes as adsorbent with adsorbent dosage of 15 g adsorbent per liter of POME, agitation rate of 100 rpm, contact time of 1 hr and pH of 6.0. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of chitosan flakes and crosslinked chitosan beads before and after the adsorption experiments were presented to prove that the residue oil had been adsorbed by these adsorbents. The Langmuir isotherm model provided the best fit for the equilibrium data in the concentration range investigated, with the maximum adsorption capacity being 131.58 mg of residue oil per gram of chitosan flakes, as obtained from the linear equation of the isotherm. The adsorption kinetics was tested using three models: pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion model. The experimental kinetics data were properly correlated with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2=0.9996), which provided a rate constant, k2, of 0.0021 g/mg.min. The research study had attested chitosan and crosslinked chitosan beads as a potential adsorbent to adsorb re