Modification of granular activated carbon by aluminum and iron oxides for decontamination of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater using central composite design

Abstract

The effectiveness of commercial granular activated carbon (GAC) induced Fe2 O3 and Al2 O3 for the adsorption of contaminants from slaughterhouse wastewater (SWW) was investigated. Batch adsorption experiments were designed using the central composite design to ascertain the effects of contact time, adsorbent dosage, and pH on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency. In comparison, activated carbon impregnated with Fe2 O3 followed by Al2 O3 was observed to have a higher pollutant removal. Under the optimized operating conditions; 70.73%, 56.40%, and 27.63% COD were removed by Fe2 O3-GAC, Al2 O3-GAC, and GAC, respectively. This study showed that modification of activated carbon using Fe2 O3 has higher efficiency and performance than Al2 O3 followed by GAC alone. The statistical model was found significant in all three cases and error was less than 5% in terms of predicted and validation results. Adsorbent showed promising features in terms of reuse for up to four times. The method adopted in this study is effective for the pretreatment of SWW.