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Journal of Environmental BiologypISSN: 0254-8704 ; eISSN: 2394-0379 ; CODEN: JEBIDP |
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Abstract - Issue Mar 2009, 29 (2) BackRemoval of fluoride by thermally activated carbon
prepared from neem (Azadirachta indica) and kikar (Acacia arabica)
leaves Sunil
Kumar1, Asha Gupta1 and J.P. Yadav*2 1Department of Environmental Science and
Engineering, 2Department of Biosciences, (Received:
February 17, 2006 ; Revised received: July 19, 2006 ; Accepted: September 09,
2006) Abstract: The present investigation deals with fluoride
removal from aqueous solution by thermally activated neem
(Azadirachta indica) leaves carbon (ANC) and thermally activated kikar (Acacia arabica) leaves
carbon (AKC) adsorbents. In this study, neem leaves
carbon and kikar leaves carbon prepared by heating
the leaves at 400oC in electric
furnace was found to be useful for the removal of fluoride. The adsorbents
of 0.3 mm and 1.0 mm sizes of neem and kikar leaves carbon was
prepared by standard sieve. Batch experiments done to see the fluoride removal properties
from synthetic solution of 5 ppm to study the
influence of pH, adsorbent dose and contact time on adsorption efficiency. The
optimum pH was found to be 6 for both adsorbents. The optimum dose was found to
be 0.5g/100 ml for ANC (activated neem leaves carbon)
and 0.7g/100 ml for AKC (activated kikar leaves
carbon). The optimum time was found to be one hour for both the adsorbent. It
was also found that adsorbent size of 0.3 mm was more efficient than the 1.0 mm
size. The adsorption process obeyed Freundlich
adsorption isotherm. The straight line of log (qe-q) vs time at ambient temperature indicated the validity of langergren equation consequently first order nature of the
process involved in the present study. Results indicate that besides intraparticle diffusion there may be other processes
controlling the rate which may be operating simultaneously. All optimized
conditions were applied for removal of fluoride from four natural water
samples. Key
words:Activated carbon, Fluoride removal, Neem leaves,
Kikar leaves, Adsorbent PDF
of full length paper is available with author (yadav1964@rediffmail.com) Copyright © 2008 Triveni Enterprises. All rights reserved. No part of the
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acceptability of the conclusions enforced or derived, rest with the author. |