Copper(II) Removal from Wastewater Using Pine Cone Derived Activated Carbon

Inappropriate disposal of wastewater including heavy metals may lead to serious public health problems. Among conventional wastewater treatment methods, adsorption is the preferred treatment technique, due to its advantages such as cheapness, simplicity, and flexibility in design and operation. In recent years, there has been an urgent need toward the production of low-cost alternatives to the commercial activated carbon which has a greater adsorption capacity with high porous and large surface area. In this experiment, activated carbon that derived from pine cone (PCAC) has been investigated as a new adsorbent to remove copper(II) ion from wastewater. The adsorption process of copper(II) ion from aqueous solution was carried out in a batch mode to study the effects of adsorbent dose (0.5 g/50 mL - 2 g/50 mL), initial pH (2-8), and initial concentrations (5 mg/L - 20 mg/L). The results indicated that activated carbon obtained from pine cone was an efficient adsorbent for the copper removal from the aqueous solution. Removal of copper ion from aqueous solution was dependent on the adsorbent dosage, pH, and initial Cu concentration, achieving maximum adsorption efficiency (99 %) at 2 g/50 mL, 6, and 20 mg/L, respectively.