Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Publication
    Ammonium adsorption-desorption by using rice straw biochar
    Rice straw was utilized into biochar by pyrolysis and used as adsorbent for ammonium removal. Rice straw biochar was found as one of the adsorbents for wastewater treatment. This study was conducted to analyses the capability of rice straw biochar on ammonium adsorption-desorption. Rice straw biochar was characterized by ash content, moisture content analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis and pH of Zero Point Charge. Ash content increased meanwhile moisture content decreased as pyrolysis temperature increased. pH of Zero Point Charge for rice straw biochar was at pH 7.5. The rice straw produced at 550 °C was selected as best adsorbent for the adsorption of ammonium. The effect of process parameters such as adsorbent dosage, adsorption contact time, initial concentration and pH of ammonium were studied on the performance of ammonium adsorption. The results showed that maximum ammonium adsorption capacity was occurred at pH 7.5 by using 0.05 g of rice straw biochar in 3.0 ppm of ammonium solution for 130 minutes of contact time. Kinetic adsorption showed pseudo-second order is the best kinetic adsorption because involving a chemical adsorption as the value of R2 which was 0.9163 closer to 1. The adsorption-desorption of ammonium shown that rice straw biochar can run up to 5 cycles.
  • Publication
    Effectiveness of banana pith as plant based coagulant for river water treatment
    River water pollution is one of the remarkable global issues that cause water crisis worldwide. Coagulation-flocculation treatment is extensively applicable for treating river water. Nonetheless, many developing countries still paying high cost for importing chemical-based coagulant as water treatment agent which is non-environmentally friendly and possess potential hazard to human health. Thus, in this research, banana pith was selected as natural coagulant as alternative material for existing chemical coagulant in river water treatment. Optimum dosage and pH of banana pith in river water treatment was examined through a series of Jar Test experiment. A comparative study on river water treatment from two different sampling sites using banana pith was evaluated in term of the percentage of turbidity and COD removal. The results indicated that the banana pith was able to effectively remove 73.53% and 92.72% of COD and turbidity respectively for Station 2 (Esplanade Pengkalan Asam) at optimum pH of 4 with desired dosage of 6 mg/L. On the contrary, banana pith eliminated 56.03% of COD and 82.80% of turbidity for river water from Station 1(Bukit Lagi) at optimum pH of 4 and dosage of 10 mg/L. Obviously, banana pith can perform well in removing turbidity and COD river water (Station 2) as compared to Station 1 for both parameters. Overall, the finding indicated that the banana pith has a potential and promising alternative natural coagulant in future for replacing commercial coagulant used in river water treatment.
  • Publication
    Effect of carbonized coconut shell as a filler on tensile properties and water absorptivity of HDPE composite
    Generation of agricultural wastes have detrimental effect to our surrounding especially visual impacts and inefficient land use. Some of these wastes are natural fibers which can be used as potential filler in composite materials. In this study, carbonized coconut shell (CCS) had been utilized as filler and it was incorporated in the high density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix to develop carbonized coconut shell filled HDPE composites. Firstly, the coconut shell powder was treated by sodium hydroxide (NaOH) with the concentration of 1, 3, 5 and 7 wt% for 2 hours. The 7 wt% treated coconut shell revealed better filler properties in the proximate analysis. Next, it was converted into carbonized coconut shell via carbonization process at 600 °C and used as filler in HDPE composites. The carbonized coconut shell filled HDPE composites with different filler loading of 5 to 20 wt% were prepared using extruder at operating conditions of 180 °C at 70 rpm of screw speed. The increase in the filler loading enhanced the tensile strength and the Young’s modulus of the filled HDPE composite. However, the elongation at break of the composite was observed to decrease with an increasing in the filler loading. There are some voids observed in the HDPE/CCS5 composites while good surface adhesion was presented in HDPE/CCS15 composites. The water uptake by the composites was observed to be increased with the filler loading. In conclusion, the optimum filler loading for carbonized coconut shell filled HDPE composites was determined as 15 wt% because it imparts high tensile strength with moderate water absorption properties.
  • Publication
    Coagulation-flocculation process for turbidity removal using alum sludge from water treatment plant
    The aim of this research was to utilize alum sludge, also known as water treatment residual (WTR) from water treatment plant for preparing sludge reagent product (SRP) as coagulant in removing turbidity of kaolin suspension and river water. The WTR was characterized by examine the inorganic component (functional group, and surface morphology using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) respectively. WTR had an amorphous structure and contained high aluminum metal constituents with 35.4 %, which can be recovered as coagulant. Acidification was conducted to recover these aluminium in WTR by using sulphuric acid and produced SRP. The optimum condition of SRP prepared from WTR was evaluated through parameters such as sludge concentration, normality and dosage of acid. It has been observed that 1 % sludge concentration acidified with 0.08 ml/ml sludge and 2.0 N H2SO4 of SRP gave the maximum percentage turbidity removal of 99.46 %. The performance of SRP in coagulation-flocculation process by using a standard jar test was studied based on the effect of pH, kaolin concentration, and SRP dosage. The highest percentage turbidity removal (99.79 %) was obtained at pH 7, kaolin concentration of 800 mg/L, and SRP dosage of 80 mg/L. The SRP performance was also compared to alum coagulant. The percentage turbidity removal of river water for both coagulants were almost similar, with 90.60 % for SRP and 91.18 % for alum respectively. Thus, SRP has the potential to replace commercial coagulant in water treatment plant in terms of costing and sustainability.