Removal of organic pollutants from wastewater by activated carbon prepared from dates stones of southern Algeria

Abstract

The aim of this work is to prepare activated carbon from date seeds to treat wastewater. The study of the characteristics of activated carbon from El-Oued dates gave the following results: surface area (125.86m²/g), pore volume (0.039cc/g), pore size (16.25µm), microspores surface area (92.28 m²/g), the external surface (33.57 m2/g), methylene blue index (13.6 mg/g), iodine number (735.2 mg/g) and amount of functional groups (4.10^-2 mol/g).
The best conditions for the removal of organic pollutants are: contact time (5 min), stirring speed between 200 and 300 rpm and a pH below 5 or above 8.
The removal of organic pollutants in wastewater from El-Oued region prepared by the charcoal has led to very significant abatement rate: COD (86.9%) and BOD₅ (87.55%).