Activated Carbon from Palmyra Palm Peel as an Alternative Adsorbent for Removing Heavy Metal Ions Fe(III) and Cr(VI) in Industrial Waste

Abstract

Palmyra palm peel served as raw material for preparing activated carbon. In addition to its high cellulose content, palmyra palm shells are also easily found in Gresik and Tuban, East Java. Palmyra palm shell is also an abundant solid waste with low economic value, so using palmyra palm shells as raw material for activated carbon production is low cost to reduce the contaminant in liquid waste. This experiment aims to determine the effectiveness of palmyra palm peel as a bio-adsorbent for heavy metal ions Fe(III) and Cr(VI) in industrial waste. This research was conducted through 3 processes: chemical activation, carbonization, and adsorption. The methods used in this study consisted of pre-treatment, activation of raw materials, manufacture of standard solutions, calibration of standard solutions, and adsorption of heavy metals from textile waste. The carbons' activation was conducted at 600 and 700oC in the presence of KOH as the activating agent. The results are a water content of 17.50% and an ash content of 8.37%. The moisture content and ash produced results comply with the SII and SNI 06-3730-1995 standards. The carbon produced at 700oC has a better adsorption performance than that produced at 600oC. The maximum removal efficiency for Fe(III) was 95.25, and Cr(VI) was 89.7%. Two well-known equations, Langmuir and Freundlich, were used to correlate the experimental adsorption data. Langmuir equation could represent the data better than Freundlich with an R2 value close to unity.