TITLE:
Production of Activated Carbon and Characterization from Snail Shell Waste (Helix pomatia)
AUTHORS:
Rhoda Habor Gumus, Ideyonbe Okpeku
KEYWORDS:
Activated Carbon, Snail Shell Waste, Methylene Blue, Adsorption
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
15,
2015
ABSTRACT: Snail shell waste (Helix pomatia) has been evaluated as raw material for the preparation of activated carbon using ZnCl2 and CaCl2 with the temperature ranging from 500°C to 800°C. The activated carbon prepared was characterized, showing effect of temperature on ash content, pore volume and porosity. The adsorption isotherm for methylene blue was carried out on the activated carbon in a batch study. The adsorbent exhibited excellent adsorption for methylene blue. The experimental data were used for both Langmuir and Freundlich models. The adsorption coefficients of Langmuir isotherm were found to be 0.996 and 0.957 for CaCl2 and ZnCl2 while 0.969 and 0.962 were obtained for the Freundlich isotherm respectively. The value of RL was found to be 0.75 and 0.38 for samples CC and ZZ respectively, which is an indication that activated carbon impregnated with CaCl2 and ZnCl2 is favourable for adsorption of methylene blue under the conditions used in this study.