4.0 CONCLUSION
The results of this study show the promising potential of developing activated carbon (with well developed pore
structure, high specific surface area and adsorption capacity) from coconut shell which is abundant as agricultural
by-product in Nigeria for industrial wastewater treatment. Experimental data showed that increase in temperature
and heating duration resulted in better activation as demonstrated by the trend of the methylene blue number;
however an increase in the % ash content followed this trend which is responsible for hydrophobicity of activated
carbon, which in turn reduces the wettabilty and adsorptivity of activated carbon. Results show that the optimum
condition for carbonization and activation was 600 and 1000oC respectively for 1hr. Characteristics of activated
carbon produced at this condition were; yield of 20.36 %, bulk density of 0.509 g/cm3, ash of 6.15 % and
methylene blue number of 192.6 mg/g.
The results obtained in this study showed that produced granular and powder activated carbon from coconut shell
can be used for removal of COD from brewery wastewater, achieving 98% COD removal efficiency at a carbon
dosage of 15g/100ml of brewery wastewater. This would be of immense benefit not only to the manufacturing
industry in terms of minimising cost of COD treatment, but also to minimise the impact on the environment. The
batch adsorption equilibrium data was better correlated by the Freundlich isotherm than linear and Langmuir
isotherms.