The Effect of Activator Type and Concentration on the Performance of Activated Carbon from Bengkirai Wood as Adsorbent to Reduce Iron Content in Water

Iron is a major impurity in many water resources and leads to contamination in drinking water. One technology that can be used to reduce the iron content is adsorption using activated carbon. Activated carbon can be derived from biomass including forestry and agricultural waste. To produce an economic adsorbent, the researcher used bengkirai wood sawdust waste which contains 52.9% cellulose and 24% lignin. This material is treated by physical and chemical activation to produce activated carbon. However, there is no information on the effect of the type and concentration of activator on the performance of bengkirai wood activated carbon in reducing iron content. Thus, the purpose of this research is to understand the effect of activator type and concentration on the performance of activated carbon from bengkirai wood to adsorb iron content. There are five steps in this research which are preparation, carbonization, chemical activation, characterization and performance test. The raw material is prepared by screening to get an uniform size of bengkirai wood sawdust. Then, the uniformed bengkirai sawdust is physically activated in the carbonization step by heating it in the furnace at 600°C for 2 hours. After that, the carbon is activated using acid which are HCl, HNO3, and H2SO4 with concentrations of 0.1 M, 0.3 M and 0.5 M. The characterization done in this study are iodine number test and functional group test using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The final step is performance test of activated carbon to adsorb iron in the water by contacting the activated carbon into water containing iron for 1 hour. The concentration of iron in the water is measured using Uv vis spectofometry. The result shows that the carbon activation with H2SO4 0.1 M produce activated carbon with the highest iodine number compared to the other type of activator and concentration. The iodine number for this activated carbon is 839.76 mg/g. However, the activated carbon treated using HNO3 shows the best performance to adsorb iron in water.