Properties of natural adsorbent prepared from two local Sudanese agricultural wastes mango seeds and date's stones and their uses in removal of contamination from fluid nutrient

Abstract

BackgroundIn recent years, special attention has been focused on the use of natural adsorbents as an alternative to replace the conventional adsorbents, based on both the environmental and the economical points of view. The study aimed to produce natural absorbent (activated carbon) from two local agricultural wastes: mango seeds (MS) and date stones (DS) and their uses in removal of contamination from fluid nutrient. Chemical properties such as ash content, moisture content, carbon content percentage and percentage of methylene blue reduction of the two samples were investigated.ResultsThe results of study indicated that activated carbon produced from both MS and DS samples have the same pH value of 7 (neutral).The ash content of activated carbon prepared from mango seeds and date’s stones was 9.7 and 9.5%, respectively.Our statistical analysis showed no significant difference (p ≥ 0.05)for ash determinations, while the moisture content of (19.5 and 19.9%) was found for mango seeds and date's stones, respectively. There was no significant difference at p > 0.05 for moisture content of the two samples. A significant difference was observed in carbon contents for mango seeds (61.4%) and date's stones (21.8%) at p ≤ 0.05). There was no significant difference at p > 0.05 for moisture content of the two samples. Statistical analysis showed significance difference (p ≤ 0.05) for carbon determination for both samples. The results also indicated that there was significant correlation between reduction in methylene blue and percentage of activated carbon.ConclusionsActivated carbon produced from MS and DS was found to be very effective in color removal and of acceptable quality in pH, carbon content, ash content, moisture content and solubility.