Linearized and non-linearized isotherm models comparative study on adsorption of aqueous phenol solution in soil

Abstract

Use of native soil in adsorption of phenol from industrial wastewater has been one of the attractive option for dephenolation, especially in view of low cost and ease in accessibility, as well as scope for regeneration (or, at least reuse). However, an effective usage of the adsorbent necessitates a deeper understanding of the adsorption characteristics. Most of the study of adsorption characteristics are confined to analysis of mono- and bi- parametric isotherm models (and rarely, linearized multi-parametric isotherm models), due to the difficulties in solving higher parametric models, as well as fairly satisfying results by lower-parametric models. In the present study, adsorption batch studies were carried out using a naturally and widely available common soil of south India (namely, Adhanur soil), for removal of phenol from the aqueous solution, with an explicit objective of comparison of linear and non-linear regression methods for finding variation in isotherm coefficients and fitness of the models. Six linearized isotherm models (including four linearized Langmuir models) and three non-linear isotherm model were discussed in this paper, and their coefficients were estimated. Although all the studied isotherm models showed fairly good fit to the experimental data, but Redlich—Peterson isotherm was found to be the best representative for phenol-sorption on the used soil adsorbent. Besides, it was observed that to determine the isotherm parameters non-linear isotherm models were found to be the best representative of adsorption characteristics, than their linearized counter-parts.