A comparative adsorption/biosorption study of mono-chlorinated phenols onto various sorbents

The potential use of dried activated sludge and fly ash as a substitute for granular activated carbon for removing mono-chlorinated phenols (o-chlorophenol and p-chlorophenol) was examined. The pollutant binding capacity of the adsorbent/biosorbent was shown to be a function of substituted group, initial pH and initial mono-chlorinated phenol concentration. The working sorption pH value was determined as 1.0 and the equilibrium uptake increased with increasing initial mono-chlorinated phenol concentration up to 500 mg dm−3 for all the mono-chlorinated phenol-sorbent systems. The suitability of the Freundlich, Langmuir and Redlich–Peterson adsorption models to the equilibrium data were investigated for each mono-chlorinated phenol-sorbent system. The results showed that the equilibrium data for all the mono-chlorinated phenol-sorbent systems fitted the Redlich–Peterson model best within the concentration range studied.