Usage of palm shell activated carbon to treat landfill leachate

Abstract

Leachate generated from the municipal landfill contains organic and inorganic pollutants, including heavy metals, which makes it unsuitable to be discharged in natural bodies without any prior treatment. The objective of this study is to investigate the capability of palm shell activated carbon activated carbon powder to remove heavy metals from landfill leachate, by using an adsorption process. Batch experiments were carried out to investigate the performance of palm shell activated carbon powder powder with different contact times of 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes. The results obtained show that the percentage of Fe and Cr removal increases with contact time. The removal of Fe and Cr was 14% and 18.78% respectively activated carbon powder at 90 minutes of contact time. Our results also demonstrated that palm shell activated carbon powder powder shows a better performance in removing Fe and Cr, compared to common activated carbon powder powder. Therefore, palm shell activated carbon powder powder has a good potential as a low cost alternative adsorbent in removing heavy metals from landfill leachate.