BASIC DEFINITIONS

1. Adsorbent :- The substance on which another substance is accumulated is called

Adsorbent of activated carbon.

2. Adsorbate :- The substance which is accumulated on the surface of other

substance is called an adsorbate e.g. acetic acid on charcoal.

3. Adsorption isotherm :- It is the equilibrium relationship between the

concentration in the fluid phase and the concentration in the adsorbent particles at

a given temperature.

4. Surface Tension:- It is property of liquid due to which its surface behaves like

elastic membrane. (N/m).

INTRODUCTION

A) ADSORPTION

Molecular forces at the surface of a liquid or solid are in a state of

unsaturation. The molecules in the bulk of solid or liquid are attracted from all sides by

the other molecules. These molecules do not have any unbalanced forces. But the

molecules at the surface are not attracted from all sides giving rise to unbalanced forces.

As a result, solid and liquid surfaces tend to satisfy their residual forces by

attracting onto and retaining on their surfaces gases or dissolved substances with which

they come in contact.

The phenomenon of concentration of a substances on the surface of a solid

or liquid is called Adsorption. The molecules do not go deeper into the bulk. They remain
confined to the surface. Adsorption can also be defined as "The change in concentration

at the interfacial layer between two phases of a system due to surfaces forces.

TYPES OF ADSORPTION

Depending on the forces, mainly there are two types of adsorption.

1) Physical adsorption

2) Chemical adsorption

FACTORS AFFECTING THE RATE OF ADSORPTION

1) Surface area of adsorbent

2) Nature of adsorbent

3) Nature of adsorbate

4) Concentration of Adsorbate

5) Temperature

6) Pressure

APPLICATIONS IN GENERAL AS WATER /

WASTE WATER CLEANING

a) Removal of colloidal impurities

Colloidal impurities can be removed from water by chemical coagulation.

For this purpose, floe forming chemicals, known as coagulants such as alum are added to

water which results in the increase in particle size. Organic clusters of different size,

shape and weight are formed and they settle more rapidly.
 Alum hydrolyses to form a gelatinous precipitate of Al(OH)3 , which

adsorbs colouring matter and other impurities in water. As alum is found to be effective

when pH of water ranges between 6.5 to 8.5. The dose of alum varies between 10 to 30

milligrams per litre of water. Alum is preferred over other coagulants because it reduces

taste and order in addition to turbidity in water. The floc formed is quite-tough to be

easily broken. As alum is a good coagulation agent, colloidal impurities are precipitated

to produce crystal clear water.

b) Softening of hard water by ion-exchange adsorption process :

Adsorption is the process of ion-transfer in which interfacial forces

remove the ions and molecules (known as adsorbates) from solution (water) and

concentrate at the interface of adsorbents.

Water may contain Ca++ and Mg++ ions and Cl - and SO4-- ions which make

water hard. In this process no chemicals are added to water. Instead when hard water is

allowed to percolate through a column of zeolite or permutit, which has the property of

removing Ca++ and Mg++ ions from the water and substituting Na+ ions in their place by

ion-exchange adsorption process and hard water is softened. Organic contaminants are

removed from water by the process of adsorption which results from the attraction and

accumulation of one substance on the surface of another.

Zeolite has an ion exchange value of 6500 to 9000 gm of hardness per m3

It is mainly processed from green sand. The ion-exchange adsorption process effect is to

reduce the hardness of water almost to zero. For softening municipal waters, it is usually

the practice to soften only a portion of water to zero hardness and then to mix it with

softened water so that resulting hardness be of about 50-80 ppm.

c) Ion-exchange DemineralKation/Deionisation Process

In modern development, water is deionised and purified by adsorption. A

typical ion exchange plant consists of two groups of ion exchange softeners, one of which

adsorbs cations and exchange H+ ions, while the other adsorbs anions and exchange OH+

ions.

The plant is fed with clarified water with the concentration of suspended matter

not more than 20 mg/l. The flow diagram of the plant shown in fig. I can be modified

depending on the quality of initial water and requirements of demineralized water.

The first group of softeners in the plant operates in the same way as H-cation

exchange softener in the process of water softening, with the sole difference that the H-

cation exchange softener should now adsorb not only Ca2+ and Mg++ but also Na+ and all

other cations of dissolved substances. The working exchange capacity of H-cation

exchange in the process of complete demineralization of water is respectively lower.

When the water being treated passes through the second group of

softeners, anions of strong acids (SO42-,Cl-1 ) are adsorbed and are exchanged by OH- ion

of the anion exchanger This pure water can be obtained.

ADSORPTION WITH ACTIVATED CARBON &

GRANULAR CARBON

In the past, the adsorption process has not been used extensively in waste

water purification, but demands for a better quality of heated waste water effluent have

led to an intensive examination and use of process of adsorption on activated carbon. The

carbon in this case used to remove a portion of the remaining dissolved organic matter.
Depending on the means of contacting the carbon with the water, the particulate matter

that is present may also be removed.

Activated carbon production

Activated carbon is prepared by first making a char from material such as

wood or coal. This is accomplished by heating the material to a red heat in a retort to

drive off the hydrocarbons but with an insufficient supply of air to sustain combustion.

The char particle is then activated by exposure to an oxidizing gas at a high temperature.

This gas develops a porous structure in the char and thus creates a large internal surface

area. The surface properties that result are a function of both the initial material used the

exact preparation procedure, so that many variations are possible. The type of base

material from which the activated carbon is derived may also affect the pore size

distribution and the regeneration characteristics. After activation, the carbon can be

separated into, or prepared in, different sizes with different adsorption capacity. The two

size classifications generally are powdered, which has a diameter of less than 200 mesh

and granular which has a diameter greater than 0.1 mm.

Treatment with powdered activated carbon

An alternative means of application is that of adding powdered activated

carbon. It has been added to the effluent from biological treatment process directly to the

various biological treatment process directly to the various biological treatment process

and in physical-chemical treatment process flowsheet.

In the case of biological-treatment plant effluent the carbon is added to the

effluent in a contacting basin. After a certain amount of time for contact, the carbon is

allowed to settle to the bottom of the tank, and the treated water is then removed from the
tank. Because carbon is very fine, coagulant, such as a poly electrolyte may be need to

aid the removal of the carbon particles, or filtration through rapid sand filters may be

required. The addition of powdered activated carbon directly sludge treatment process

has proved to be effective in the removal of some soluble refractory orgnics.

CARBON REGENERATION: ~

Economical application of carbon depends on an efficient means of

regenerating the carbon after its adsorptive capacity has been reached. Granular carbon

can be regenerated easily in a furnace by oxidizing the organic matter and thus removing

it from the carbon surface. Some of the carbon about 5-10% is also destroyed in this

process during transport and must be replaced with new or virgin carbon. A major

problem with the use of powdered activated carbon is that the methodology for its

regeneration is not well defined. It is anticipated that its use will increase a regeneration

problems are solved. The use of powdered activated carbon produced from solid wastes

may obviate the need to regenerate the spent carbon.

RATE OF ADSORPTION :-

The adsorption process can be divided into three steps 1 ) Transfer of the

adsorbate molecules through the film that surrounds the absorbent, 2) Diffusion through

the pores if the adsorbent is porous 3) Uptake of the adsorbate molecules by the active

surface, including formation of the bonds between the adsorbate and the carbon.

RESULTS

1 ) Adsorption on active carbon can be used as a tertiary treatment for removal of

malachite green from waste streams.

2) The activation energy was found to be 2.96 k cal/mol which suggests that adsorption

is a physical process.

3) The maximum adsorptive capacity was found to be 80.7 mg dye/g active carbon for

the type of carbon used.