Adsorption of Chloride Ions from Aqueous Solution Using Activated Carbon Obtained by Chemical Activation of Jute Stick

The coastal belt of Bangladesh is severely impacted by salinity intrusion. One way to address this problem is to use efficient and low-cost materials as adsorbents to remove saline ions from water. Activated carbon (AC) is the most efficient adsorbent in water treatment among those materials. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of activated carbon, derived from jute stick (JS), as an adsorbent and its adsorption performance in removing salinity. Both column and batch adsorption tests were carried out to evaluate the performance of AC on the synthesized saline water. As part of the column adsorption process, five experimental filters with a continuous flow were set up for five different initial concentrations of chloride ions. The best two AC samples obtained from the batch adsorption process (out of 32 samples), each having triplicates, were selected for further analysis. In batch adsorption, the removal efficiency of activated carbon was evaluated for chloride concentrations ranging from 500–900 mg/L. It was found that AC impregnated with ZnCl2 (1:1) at 600°C and FeSO4 (1:1) at 700°C showed the maximum removal efficiency of 48% for optimum dosing of 4.4 g/L and 46% for optimum dosing of 4.8 g/L respectively. As for the column adsorption process with continuous flow having the same initial chloride concentration as the batch experiment, AC impregnated with ZnCl2 (1:1) at 600°C and FeSO4 (1:1) at 700°C showed removal efficiencies of 58.13% and 56.91% when subjected to initial chloride ion concentration of 500 mg/L.