Fixed-bed adsorption of furfural onto granular activated carbon prepared from sawdust

Abstract

Furfural is a toxic aromatic aldehyde that can cause a severe environmental problem especially the wastewater drone from petroleum refinery units. In the present work, a useless by-product from local furniture manufacturing industry sawdust was used as raw material for preparation of activated carbon which is chemically activated with phosphoric acid. The effect of adsorption variable which include The effect of volumetric flow rate (13, 38, 68) ml / min, the bed depth (0.03, 0.05, 0.09) m, the particle size (0.297, 0.595, 1.19) mm and initial furfural concentration (50, 150, 250) mg / l on break through curve for fixed bed adsorption column were evaluated. A comparison was made when using commercial activated carbon and prepared activated carbon at the same operation conditions. The results obtained from experimental investigation show that in fixed bed column increasing the volumetric flow rate lead to fast removal of furfural and reducing breakthrough time. Also the breakthrough curve and breakthrough time increase with bed length and decrease volumetric flow rate. And decreasing with increasing furfural concentration and particle size. In the interval of (120) min the value of Ct / Co reach 0.911 and 0.931 for CAC and PAC, respectively. At the best condition, which obtained at volumetric flow rate 38 ml / min, bed depth 0.5 m, particle size 0.595 mm and initial furfural concentration 250 mg / l.