ABSTRACT

Palm kernel shells are readily available agricultural waste products that have been used as low-cost potential adsorbent to remove chromium from effluent water. The production of activated carbon from palm kernel shells using KOH as activating agent was studied. Batch adsorption studies were carried out as a function of parameters such as carbon dosage, pH and contact time. Chromium removal was found to be pH dependent with the optimum pH for chromium removal being 6.5. Equilibrium time was attained at 200 min. Maximum adsorption was attained at an adsorbent loading of 5g. The Lagergrenpseudo first-order and the Ho pseudo second-order models were used to study adsorption kinetics. Pseudo first order kinetics was found to be better fit for adsorption chromium(III) ions with good correlation factor of 0.965. These results reveal that activated carbon made from palm kernel shells possesses good properties required for adsorption of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution.