Investigation of Phenol Adsorption Process Utilizing Wood Sawdust

Abstract

This study serves as an attempt to utilize wood waste in Albania for environmental protection purposes. The use of wood sawdust is been explored as an alternative for treating water with phenol content. The sawdust used is obtained from the local furniture manufacturing industry. Based on the prevalence of tree species in Albania, five types of sawdust are selected: beech, pine, oak, fir, and maple. Meanwhile, the used water sample was a synthetic phenolic solution. The periodic adsorption process is studied to evaluate the kinetics of adsorption and the adsorption capacity of the untreated samples of interest. The experimental results indicate that the adsorption occurs according to the pseudo-first-order model, suggesting that the process relies on both the solution concentration and the availability of adsorption sites. The optimal time to reach adsorption equilibrium is 3 hours. The adsorption isotherm that best describes the process is the Freundlich isotherm, with constants K_f and n 0.27 and 2.85 respectively, indicating for a multilayer adsorption on heterogeneous sites. The type of sawdust turned out to be crucial in the amount of phenol removal. Among the sawdust types studied, oak sawdust exhibits the highest phenol adsorption capacity, followed by fir, maple, pine, and beech.