Comparative Study of Effect of PAC and GAC on Removal of COD Contributing Component of Sugar Industry waste water

Abstract

Rapid globalization leads us on the way to industrialization. Pollution of water by organic and inorganic chemicals is of serious environmental concern. Sugar industry is one of the biggest consumer of water, and can also introduce serious pollutant to the environment. Chemical as well as biological treatments to these waste waters are in practice since long. Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) prepared from wood and nutshell charcoal with specific surface area of 5602.352 cm 2 /gm and particle size 44 μ m and Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) prepared from wood and nutshell charcoal with specific surface area of 10.50 cm 2 /gm and particle size 1.08 mm are used as adsorbents to the combined waste water of Sugar mill at room temperature. The different dosage of PAC and GAC is kept in contact for 24 hours and analyzed before and after treatment. The results of COD removal follow the Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Among PAC and GAC -PAC removes 62.26% of COD at the dose of 20gm/L further at the dose of 30 gm/L its 66.04%, whereas GAC removes 62.26% of COD at the dose of 20gm/L and found exhausted for higher dosages. It proves that rates of adsorption increases with the reduction in particle size.