| Peer-Reviewed

Water Hardness Removal by Coconut Shell Activated Carbon

Received: 8 August 2014     Accepted: 23 August 2014     Published: 30 August 2014
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

The present study reports the water softening by adsorption of hardness ions onto Coconut Shell Activated Carbons (CSAC). Characterization of CSAC was identified by FT-IR and SEM techniques. Batch experiments were carried out to determine the effect of various adsorbent factors such as adsorbent dose, initial pH, contact time, and temperature, on the adsorption process using synthetic and field collected water samples. Removal efficiency at nearly neutral pH of 6.3 for both synthetic and field collected water samples were 60% and 55% respectively. Temperature study (303 K-333 K) shows that the softening process in synthetic and field hard water is endothermic as removal efficiency was increasing from 40% and 29% at 303 K to 47% and 38% at 333 K respectively. Removal efficiency increases with the increase in contact time and adsorbent dose until 15 hours and 0.24g/cm3 respectively, for both field and synthetic hard water, which was considered to be maximum. Equilibrium isotherms have been analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, and both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models fit to explain the adsorption behavior of hardness ions onto CSAC.

Published in International Journal of Science, Technology and Society (Volume 2, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11
Page(s) 97-102
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Activated Carbon, Water Hardness, Coconut Shell, Adsorption, Removal Efficiency

References
[1] Meena, K. S., Gunsaria, R. K., Meena, K., Kumar, N. and Meena, P. L., 2011. The Problem of Hardness in Ground Water of Deoli Tehsil (Tonk District) Rajasthan. Journal of Current Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2(1): 50-54
[2] Knivsland, S. M., 2012. Water Chemistry in the Bahi-Manyoni Basin in Tanzania. Reprosentralen, University of Oslo
[3] Napacho, Z. A., & Manyele, S. V., 2010. Quality Assessment of Drinking Water in Temeke District (part II): Characterization of Chemical Parameters. African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 4(11): 775-789.
[4] Agostinho, L. C. L., Nascimento, L. and Cavalcanti, B. F., 2012. Water Hardness Removal for Industrial Use. Application of the Electrolysis Process. 1:460. doi:10.4172/scientificreports.460
[5] Seo, S. J., Jeon, H., Lee, L. K., Kim, G. Y., Park, D., Nojima, H., Lee, J. and Hyeon, S., 2010. Investigation on Removal of Hardness Ions by Capacitive Deionization (CDI) for Water Softening Applications. Water research, 44: 2267–2275
[6] Johnson, R and Scherer, T., 2012. Drinking Water Quality. Testing and Interpreting Your Results: NDSU Extension Service
[7] WHO, 2011. Hardness in Drinking-water Background Document for Development of WHO: Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality. WHO Press
[8] Manahan, S. E. (2000). Environmental Chemistry. (7th ed) Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC
[9] Malakootian, M., Mansoorian, H. J., & Moosazadeh, M., 2010. Performance Evaluation of Electrocoagulation Process using Iron-rod Electrodes for Removing Hardness from Drinking Water. Desalination, 255(1): 67-71
[10] Dow Water & Process Solutions, 2013. FILMTEC™ Reverse Osmosis Membranes Technical Manual
[11] Frankel, V. S. (2011) Seawater Desalination: Trends and Technologies. USA: Kennedy/Jenks Consultants
[12] Grassi, M., Kaykioglu, G., Belgiorno, V., & Lofrano, G. (2012). Removal of emerging contaminants from water and wastewater by adsorption process. In Emerging Compounds Removal from Wastewater (pp. 15-37). Springer Netherlands
[13] Window on State Government (1996), Specification for Floor Finish Remover-concentrate, Texas Specification No. 485-54-09A. Retrieved from http://www.window.state.tx.us/procurement/pub/specifications-library/485/54-09a/
[14] Hanumantharao, Y., Kishore, M., & Ravindhranath, K. (2011). Preparation and development of adsorbent carbon from Acacia farnesiana for defluoridation. International Journal of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sciences, 1(3), 209-223.
[15] Gulipalli, C. S., Prasad, B., Wasewar, K. L., (2011) Batch Study, Equilibirum and Kinetics of Adsorption of Selenium Using Rice Husk Ash (RHA). Journal of Engineering Science and Technology, 6 (5), 586 – 605
[16] Desta, M. B., (2013) Batch Sorption Experiments: Langmuir and Freundlich Isotherm Studies for the Adsorption of Textile Metal Ions onto Teff Straw (Eragrostis tef) Agricultural Waste. Journal of Thermodynamics Volume 2013, Article ID 375830, 6 pages
[17] Cash, D., (2008) EDTA Titrations 2: Analysis of Calcium in a Supplement Tablet; Analysis of Magnesium in Epsom Salt; Hardness of Water. Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology.
[18] Srivastava, V. C., Mall, I. D., & Mishra, I. M. (2008). Adsorption of toxic metal ions onto activated carbon: Study of sorption behaviour through characterization and kinetics. Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 47(8), 1269-1280
[19] Sherene, T. (2010). Mobility and transport of heavy metals in polluted soil environment. Biological Forum — An International Journal, 2(2): 112-121
[20] Wong MH, Pang J, Chan GSY, Zhang J, Liang J (2003). Physiological aspects of vetiver grass for rehabilitation in abandoned metalliferous mine wastes. Chemosphere 5:1559-1570
[21] Hydrology Project, (1999). Understanding hydrogen ion concentration (pH). New Delhi: World Bank & Government of The Netherlands funded
[22] Jimoh, T. O., Buoro, A. T., & Muriana, M. (2012). Utilization of Blighia sapida (Akee apple) pod in the removal of lead, cadmium and cobalt ions from aqueous solution. Journal of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology Vol, 4(10), 178-187.
[23] Rolence, C., Machunda, R. L. and Njau, K. N. (2014). Potentials of Agric Wastes Activated Carbon for Water Softening. Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Science 3(3) 199-207
[24] Chakrabarty, S., & Sarma, H. P. (2012). Defluoridation of contaminated drinking water using neem charcoal adsorbent: kinetics and equilibrium studies. International Journal of ChemTech Research, 4(2).
[25] Sepehr, M. N., Zarrabi, M., Kazemian, H., Amrane, A. Yaghmaian, K. and Ghaffari, H. R., 2013. Removal of Hardness Agents, Calcium and Magnesium, by Natural and Alkaline Modified pumice Stones in Single and Binary Systems. Applied Surface Science, 274: 295-305
[26] Hameed, B. H., Mahmoud, D. K., & Ahmad, A. L. (2008). Equilibrium modeling and kinetic studies on the adsorption of basic dye by a low-cost adsorbent: Coconut (Cocos nucifera) bunch waste. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 158(1), 65-72.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Cecilia Rolence, Revocatus Lazaro Machunda, Karoli Nicholas Njau. (2014). Water Hardness Removal by Coconut Shell Activated Carbon. International Journal of Science, Technology and Society, 2(5), 97-102. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Cecilia Rolence; Revocatus Lazaro Machunda; Karoli Nicholas Njau. Water Hardness Removal by Coconut Shell Activated Carbon. Int. J. Sci. Technol. Soc. 2014, 2(5), 97-102. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Cecilia Rolence, Revocatus Lazaro Machunda, Karoli Nicholas Njau. Water Hardness Removal by Coconut Shell Activated Carbon. Int J Sci Technol Soc. 2014;2(5):97-102. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11,
      author = {Cecilia Rolence and Revocatus Lazaro Machunda and Karoli Nicholas Njau},
      title = {Water Hardness Removal by Coconut Shell Activated Carbon},
      journal = {International Journal of Science, Technology and Society},
      volume = {2},
      number = {5},
      pages = {97-102},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijsts.20140205.11},
      abstract = {The present study reports the water softening by adsorption of hardness ions onto Coconut Shell Activated Carbons (CSAC). Characterization of CSAC was identified by FT-IR and SEM techniques. Batch experiments were carried out to determine the effect of various adsorbent factors such as adsorbent dose, initial pH, contact time, and temperature, on the adsorption process using synthetic and field collected water samples. Removal efficiency at nearly neutral pH of 6.3 for both synthetic and field collected water samples were 60% and 55% respectively. Temperature study (303 K-333 K) shows that the softening process in synthetic and field hard water is endothermic as removal efficiency was increasing from 40% and 29% at 303 K to 47% and 38% at 333 K respectively. Removal efficiency increases with the increase in contact time and adsorbent dose until 15 hours and 0.24g/cm3 respectively, for both field and synthetic hard water, which was considered to be maximum. Equilibrium isotherms have been analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, and both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models fit to explain the adsorption behavior of hardness ions onto CSAC.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Water Hardness Removal by Coconut Shell Activated Carbon
    AU  - Cecilia Rolence
    AU  - Revocatus Lazaro Machunda
    AU  - Karoli Nicholas Njau
    Y1  - 2014/08/30
    PY  - 2014
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11
    T2  - International Journal of Science, Technology and Society
    JF  - International Journal of Science, Technology and Society
    JO  - International Journal of Science, Technology and Society
    SP  - 97
    EP  - 102
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-7420
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsts.20140205.11
    AB  - The present study reports the water softening by adsorption of hardness ions onto Coconut Shell Activated Carbons (CSAC). Characterization of CSAC was identified by FT-IR and SEM techniques. Batch experiments were carried out to determine the effect of various adsorbent factors such as adsorbent dose, initial pH, contact time, and temperature, on the adsorption process using synthetic and field collected water samples. Removal efficiency at nearly neutral pH of 6.3 for both synthetic and field collected water samples were 60% and 55% respectively. Temperature study (303 K-333 K) shows that the softening process in synthetic and field hard water is endothermic as removal efficiency was increasing from 40% and 29% at 303 K to 47% and 38% at 333 K respectively. Removal efficiency increases with the increase in contact time and adsorbent dose until 15 hours and 0.24g/cm3 respectively, for both field and synthetic hard water, which was considered to be maximum. Equilibrium isotherms have been analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, and both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models fit to explain the adsorption behavior of hardness ions onto CSAC.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Water and Environmental Science and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), Arusha, Tanzania

  • Department of Water and Environmental Science and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), Arusha, Tanzania

  • Department of Water and Environmental Science and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), Arusha, Tanzania

  • Sections