Recycling of agricultural solid waste, coir pith: Removal of anions, heavy metals, organics and dyes from water by adsorption onto ZnCl2 activated coir pith carbon

The abundant lignocellulosic agricultural waste, coir pith is used to develop ZnCl2 activated carbon and applied to the removal of toxic anions, heavy metals, organic compounds and dyes from water. Sorption of inorganic anions such as nitrate, thiocyanate, selenite, chromium(VI), vanadium(V), sulfate, molybdate, phosphate and heavy metals such as nickel(II) and mercury(II) has been studied. Removal of organics such as resorcinol, 4-nitrophenol, catechol, bisphenol A, 2-aminophenol, quinol, O-cresol, phenol and 2-chlorophenol has also been investigated. Uptake of acidic dyes such as acid brilliant blue, acid violet, basic dyes such as methylene blue, rhodamine B, direct dyes such as direct red 12B, congo red and reactive dyes such as procion red, procion orange were also examined to assess the possible use of the adsorbent for the treatment of contaminated ground water. Favorable conditions for maximum removal of all adsorbates at the adsorbate concentration of 20 mg/L were used. Results show that ZnCl2 activated coir pith carbon is effective for the removal of toxic pollutants from water.