CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Effect of Activated Carbon Dosage on Laundry Wastewater

4.1.1 Biological Oxygen Demand

1400 BOD
1200 1:00
75:25
1000 50:50
25:75
BOD in ppm

800
0:1
600

400

200

0
0 Amount of Activated5 Carbon (grams) 10

Figure 4.1- Effect of Dosage on BOD

Figure 4.1 showed the effect of different dosages on the parameter BOD. As can be
seen, at 1:0 and 75:25, there is an increase in the amount of BOD present in the treated
wastewater using 5 g activated carbon. This is due to the properties of coconut The researchers
theorized that this may be due to an increase in surface area of the RHAC because of BPAC.

(High BOD, large amount of organic matter that the microorganisms needed to oxidize the
pollutant, reducing the dissolved oxygen level in the wastewater.

At ratios 1:00 and 75:25, coconut husk component is larger, tells us that? Does this mean that
at 5 g, the AC made from coconut husk contributed to the increase of the BOD thus rice husk
is more efficient in decreasing BOD? However, there have been no controlled studies which
compare differences in ...)

At ratios 1:00 and 75:25, at 1 g lesser amount of activated carbon not enough to absorb the
microorganisms and at 5 g, the amount of activated carbon drives the microorganisms to
multiply?)
 Dosage Pair Mean t-value df p-value Decision

1g Before 565.00
-0.791 4 0.473 Accept Ho
After 699.80
5g Before 565.00
0.504 4 0.641 Accept Ho
After 492.80
10g Before 565.00
13.157 4 0.000 Reject Ho
After 157.60
Also, it can be observe that as the dosage increases, the removal of BOD is more
efficient. The optimum removal is achieved at 10 g dosage at ratio 75:25, this is because

(At 1 g and 5 g, BOD increases, while at all ratios weighing 10 g, the BOD reaches the
bottom suggesting that 10 g and more are more efficient in decreasing the amount of BOD.)

The absorbance of RHAC is significantly improved with the addition of BPAC and vice versa. It is
possible that the mix of 6.67g BPAC and 3.33g RHAC made for more adsorption sites that chromium
can attach to since there is a less uniform but larger surface area upon mixing the two activated
carbons before the adsorption experiment.

According to the research conducted by Shao-Yun Fu et al. (2008), when particles are crushed into
smaller sizes, surface attraction becomes stronger between particles. The larger the difference in
size after grinding the stronger the attraction between surfaces. This causes clumping of particles
leading to a decrease in surface area, such as the case with the adsorbent made with pure RHAC.

Table 4.1- Effect of Dosage on BOD in Laundry Wastewater

As shown on the Table 4.1, at 1 and 5 grams, there was no significant effect between
the untreated and treated wastewater in terms of dosage. In contrast, at 10 grams there is a
significant effect on the wastewater. These indicate that increasing the dosage of the activated
carbon will decrease the concentration of the BOD in the wastewater.

According chuchubanensis,

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 4.1.2 Phosphate

700
Phosphate
600
1:00

500 75:25
PHOSPHATE in ppm

50:50
400 25:75
0:1
300

200

100

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Amount of Activated Carbon (grams)

Table 4.2- Effect of dosage on Phosphate in the Laundry Wastewater

Figure 4.2 showed that the amount of phosphates in the wastewater increases as the
dosage increases. Phosphoric Acid (H3PO4) could also combine with organic matter in bio
wastes to form phosphate and polyphosphate bridges that connect and crosslink polymer
fragments. Moreover, some of these phosphate groups remain on the carbon surface after the
washing step. Futhermore, formation of elemental phosphorus was observed during the
phosphoric acid activation of polymer fibers (Puziy et al. 2002).

The above findings contradict the study by Kasmuri et al 2022. Kasmuri et al 2022 found
that phosphorus reduction removal was achieved consisting of mixture of coconut husk and
rice husk with 95% efficiency. The activating agent used in their study was ZnCl2.

When considering virgin AC (thermal activation only) with the low PO4 3-P test concentration (10.0
mg/L), there was a mean negative removal efficiency of 9.8% or an increase by approximately 1.0
mg/L PO4 3-P in the system. This was the only negative removal efficiency observed (Figure 2). This
increase is due to the naturally occurring phosphorus associated with coconut husks leaching out
and increasing PO4 3-P in the system, Trina Halfhidea2019

The use of strong oxidizing agents, such as HNO3 and H2SO4, modifies the surface oxygen functional
groups, resulting in acidic groups on AC such as carboxylic acid and lactones. Acidic functional groups
may result in a negative surface charge due to the release of protons from the carbon surface to the
solution (Sharma & Upadhyay 2009; Ota et al. 2013). Consequently, there would be a repulsive force
between negatively charged carbon surface and NO3 -N anions resulting in poor adsorption capacity.
In further studies, the molarity of the acids should be varied as the concentration of Hþ would
influence adsorbent surface charge, ionization and speciation of the adsorbate

AC adsorption proved to be successful for a wide range of pollutants (Tan et al. 2008). Although the
selected treatment methods in this study did not make a significant difference in the adsorption
capacity of NO3 -N and PO4 3-P concentrations greater than 10 mg/L, these may be more needed
and useful for the removal of other substances such as hydrocarbons (Cheenmatchaya &
Kungwankunakorn 2014), metals (Low et al. 1995; Annadurai et al. 2002; Jain et al. 2008) and other
pollutants, such as dye (Al-Aoh et al. 2013).

4.1.3. Nitrate

0.7

0.6
Nitrate
1:00
0.5 75:25
50:50
Nitrate in ppm

0.4
25:75
0.3 0:1

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
AC in g

Figure 4.3- Effect of Dosage on Nitrate in the Laundry Wastewater

Dosage Pair Mean t-value df p-value Decision

1g Before 0.34
-6.449 4 .03 Reject Ho
After 0.572
5g Before 0.34
4.686 4 .09 Accept Ho
After 0.1040
10g Before 0.34
27.097 4 .00 Reject Ho
After 0.024
 Table 4.2- Effect of Dosage on Nitrate in the Laundry Wastewater

As shown in Table 4.2, there is significant difference between the untreated and treated wastewater
samples when 1 gram and 10 grams of activated carbon were utilized. However, the negative t-value
of 1 gram indicates a reversal effect. This means that the nitrate significantly increases compared to
the initial data. This is supported by Kasmuri et al 2022 study which revealed that

The effect of adsorbent dosage on the removal of the methylene blue from the solution was used to
investigated to determine the capacity of adsorbent for a given initial adsorbate concentration and
binding site available for adsorption. It can be seen that as the adsorbent dosage of the coconut
shell-and rice husk-based adsorbent were increased from 0.5 to 3.0 g, there was a corresponding
increase in the percentage removal of the methylene blue from the solution. This is an indication
that the increase in the adsorbent dosage increases the methylene blue uptake as a result of the
increase in the population of active site (Ho et al., 1995).

In biosorption studies pH of the solution is the most important factor influencing the process
depicted in Figure 1(b). It influences not only the surface charge of the biosorbent but also the
degree of ionization of the organic substances present in the solution and the dissociation of
functional groups on the active sites of the sorbent.

It was observed that on increasing the dilution or reducing the concentration the percentage
removal increased. It is evident from Figure 1(d) that removal efficiency decreases slightly with the
increase in initia

4.1.4 pH
 8.50

8.00

7.50
pH
7.00 1:00
75:25
pH

6.50 50:50
25:75
6.00 0:1

5.50

5.00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
AC in grams

Figure 4.4- Effect of Dosage on pH in the Laundry Wastewater

It was shown that the proposed procedures made it possible to obtain microporous
active carbons with a developed surface, having surface functional groups mainly of acid
nature (Magdalena, 2020). As the amount of activated carbon in the ratio increases the pH also
decreases. It becomes more acidic due to the increase in hydronium ion accumulated during
activation process.

Dosage Pair Mean t-value df p-value Decision

1g Before 9.45
19.548 4 .00 Reject Ho
After 7.894
5g Before 9.45
23.211 4 .00 Reject Ho
After 6.792
10g Before 9.45
194.876 4 .00 Reject Ho
After 5.732
Table 4.3- Effect of Dosage on pH in the Laundry Wastewater

As Table 4.3 shows, there is a significant difference between the initial pH and the treated
wastewater.

4.2 Effect of the Different Mixture Ratios on Laundry on Wastewater

 The figures above were obtained using Multivariate Tests which involved mixing
ratio, dosage and the parameters as variables in the study. According, Justify why
Multivariate andg Gaagamitin

Figure 4.5- Effect of Mixture Ratios on Wastewater in terms of BOD Removal

Figure 4.6- Effect of Mixture Ratios on Wastewater in terms of Nitrate Removal

Figure 4.6 exhibits that at mixing ratio 75:25 (coconut husk: rice husk)
achieved the highest reduction of nitrate. It can also be seen that the first 3 mixing ratios
which mainly consists of coconut husk activated carbon have good performance in
removing nitrate. Moreover, it can be denoted that the value of samples comprised of
activated carbon of rice husk gradually declines as seen from the latter mixing ratios.
 Kasmuri et. al, 2020 found that coconut husk has better removal efficiency than rice husk
which is in good agreement with the results of the present study. The result is in the lines
of earlier literature which provides that mixture of coconut and rice husk yields high
removal rate.

It can be seen on the Figures 4.5 and 4.6 that at 75% coconut and 25% Rice husk has
the highest removal efficiency in terms of BOD and Nitrate. According Chubanensis et al.
the carbon lullunenen, mixtures of activated carbon derived from the differen agri-wastes
will produce a high.

Figure 4.7- Effect of Mixture Ratios on Wastewater in terms of pH Removal

On the other hand, the peak pH removal was observed on 25:75 (25% coconut
husk and 75% rice husk) mixing ratio.

The adsorption capacity will increase with increasing pH value which also increases up to 7000 C (Fig.
6). After that the pH will decrease.
Total
RATIO BOD Nitrate pH Points Rank
00:00 2 2 5 9 3
75:25 1 2 3 6 1
50:50 3 2 1.5 6.5 2
25:75 4 4 1.5 9.5 4
00 5 5 4 14 5
Table 4.4- Ranking of Different Mixing Ratios in terms of Removal Efficiency

The table showed that the ratio 75:25 or 75% coconut and 25% rice husk mixture is
the best among the mixing ratio treatments. According to chu, the synergistic effect of rice
husk and coconut will yield better results on treating domestic wastewater. However, other
studies showed that chuchubanesis.
Mas maganda ang mixture because mas lumalaki surface area ng coconut, which is dati nang
malaki, due to the bonding of functional group present in rice husk.