PRODUCTION OF ACTIVATED CARBON FROM AGRICULTURAL WASTE (CORN COBS)

Activated carbons (ACs) play an important role in many fields of science and technology such as purification of liquids and gases, separation of mixtures and catalysis. Due to advances inscience and technology, various chemicals and substances are used to improve the quality of human daily life as well as consumer products. This study is aimed at preparing activated carbon using corn cobs with high efficiency for the uptake dye in contaminated water.Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) was carried out for the optimal temperature of carbonization for each sample of the Corncob Activated Carbon (CCAC). The TGA confirm a suitable temperature of about 240°C for 40 minutes as optimum carbonization temperature and time respectively for the corncob samples. Structural characterizations were also done for the observation of surface area,pore volume and pore size distribution using Brunauer Emmett and Teller (BET) method, where the surface areas of the prepared CCAC before and afteractivation were determined.The surface area of the sample before and after chemical activation is 120.054 and 222.589 ㎡/g respectively, which indicated the implication of the chemical activation on the samples. The application of the ACs for the removal of dye was also carried out through dispersion of the prepared ACs onto contaminated water for removal of selected dye at different reaction time, followed by characterizing the treated water using UV-visible analysis. It was observed that the adsorption of dye with CCAC was very efficient, due to the high surface area exhibited by CCAC. As the time of absorption increases, the percentage of methylene blue present in the water reduces. Therefore the higher the time, the more methylene blue is adsorbed. This research will pave way for the recycle of agricultural waste products for useful applications in water/wastewater treatment.