Rapid Aqueous Dye Adsorption Using Carbon Powder Derived from Agricultural Waste of Coconut in Bangtalad Sub-district, Chachoengsao Province

This research emphasizes the significance of dye contaminants in industrial textile wastewater and their potential impact on health and the environment. The study aims to investigate the efficiency of low-cost carbon adsorbents derived from coconut waste through a single-step carbonization process for removing dye from aqueous solutions. The preparation of carbon powder from agriculture coconut waste, including coconut husk, young coconut shell and mature coconut shell, involves carbonization in a vertical furnace with a capacity of 200 L at a temperature of 600ºC for four hours. The characteristics of the carbon adsorbents derived from coconut waste were compared with commercially activated carbon powder. The crystalline structure was analyzed by X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), while the surface morphology and elemental composition were examined with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS). The results revealed that the carbon from coconut waste exhibited a carbon structure similar to commercial activated carbon. The surface morphology showed average surface pore size of 23.45±0.69, 4.72±0.17, 4.22±0.19, and N/A micrometers for coconut husk, young coconut shell, mature coconut shell and commercial activated carbon, respectively. Elemental analysis indicated that all the carbon materials mainly consisted of carbon and oxygen as the major components, with less than 2.84% impurities occurring in the carbonization process. The adsorption performance of methylene blue using carbon materials as adsorbents revealed that the suitable contact time was 15 minutes. The carbon waste from mature coconut shells and commercial activated carbon exhibited removal efficiencies of 94.78% and 97.38%, respectively. Despite a small difference in removal efficiency at 2.70%, indicating that the adsorption efficiency was similar to the commercial activated carbon. The pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics based on Lagergren's equation exhibited a similar value of 0.02968 min-1, comparable to the commercial activated carbon's value of 0.03775 min-1. However, efficient resource utilization focuses on the environmental, particularly in Chachoengsao Province. Additionally, efforts are being made to use low-cost waste materials from the community to be used as adsorbents for dye removal in wastewater treatment.