A Comparative Study of COD Removal Efficacy from Pharmaceutical Wastewater by Areca Nut Husk Produced and Commercially Available Activated Carbons

Pharmaceutical industries in Bangladesh are considered as one major industrial as well as environmental pollution problems which discharge a significant amount of organic contaminants in the environment hence require advanced treatment technologies to decontaminate pharmaceutical wastewater. In the present investigation, areca nut husk treated activated carbon (ANHC) was used as an adsorbent to remove chemical oxygen demand (COD) from pharmaceutical effluent as well as a comparative adsorption efficiency with commercial activated carbon (CAC) was performed. The batch experiments were carried out in a laboratory scale. The materials also evaluated for different adsorbent dosages and contact times. The experiment revealed a removal percentage up to 70% for ANHC and 90% for CAC for 3g of adsorbents in 180 min. The adsorption processes were satisfactorily described by pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetic model which shows a better fitting with the maximum regression coefficient for both adsorbents. The results show that Langmuir model best described the experimental data with a highest correlation coefficient (R2=0.9856 for ANHC and 0.9993 for CAC) compared to Freundlich model and the experimental data showed asorption capacity of 36.549 and 64.935 mg/g for ANHC and CAC, correspondingly. According to the adsorption studies, the results revealed that COD adsorption process followed by the monolayer chemisorption mechanisms. The results revealed that ANHC adsorbent is potentially low cost and environmental friendly adsorbent for the removal of organic matter from pharmaceutical effluent.