Removal of ammonia nitrogen from wastewater using activated carbon prepared from waste tyres

Abstract

In this work, the removal of ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) on activated carbon prepared from waste tyres was conducted in batch studies as a function of adsorbent dosage, pH, temperature, contact time and initial concentration. The pore structure of activated carbon was characterized by N2 adsorption. The optimal conditions for the efficient adsorption of ammonia nitrogen onto waste tyre-activated carbon were found to be an adsorbent dosage of 0.4 g/L, pH 9.0, temperature of 20 °C, contact time of 90 min and initial ammonium nitrogen concentration of 50 mg/L. The kinetics studies showed that the pseudo-second-order model offered the best connection of the adsorption data. The Langmuir model was found to provide the best fit for the experimental data. The thermodynamic results showed that the adsorption of ammonia onto waste tyre-activated carbon was exothermic, random and spontaneous in nature.