Development of Fixed Bed Adsorber for Abatement of Endosulfan in Aqueous Media

Abstract

In this paper an attempt was made to develop and evaluate the performance of a fixed bed adsorber (FBR) column to remove endosulfan, an organochlorine pesticide from the water environment using wood charcoal as an adsorbent. The FBR column design parameters were evaluated using the column breakthrough data at different bed depths. The Bohert and Adams model was used with bed depth-service time (BDST) approach for the design of the adsorber. Similarity in service time values estimated from BDST approach and experimental curves revealed that BDST approach could be adapted for the design of this system. Desorption of the exhausted column with 10% methanol solution took 1hr with maximum desorption occurring at 0.5 hrs with a maximum endosulfan concentration of 47 mg l−1. A laboratory column study for 3 successive cycles of operation (adsorption-desorption) revealed that the column could treat 47.27 bed volumes of endosulfan-contaminated water up to breakthrough and 158.45 bed volumes up to exhaustion. It showed a promising performance with more than 89% of its original efficiency even after the 3rd cycle of operation. It clearly demonstrates adaptability of the present study in developing adsorber columns for rural areas.