OAK/BEECH BIOCHAR POTENTIAL IN REMOVING PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS FROM WASTEWATER

Phenol and its derivatives are widely used chemicals in many industries, such as petroleum, pharmaceutical, leather, pesticide, paper and plastic industries. These compounds penetrate into ecosystem (water, soil, air) and reach the food chain. These pollutants are highly toxic, carcinogenic and have negative effect on ecosystem and the living organisms. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the maximum allowable concentration of phenol in potable water is 0.001 mg/L. The removal of phenols from water is quite challenging, and therefore a number of methods have been developed for that purpose. The adsorption process has received particular attention owing to its high efficiency, simplicity, and easy operation, as well as a variety of the used adsorbents. One of the low-cost and eco-friendly adsorbents that showed high efficiency in the removal of organic pollutants from water is biochar. The aim of this work was to examine the effectiveness of using biochar as an adsorbent for phenol removal from synthetic wastewater. Biochar was obtained by pyrolysis at 700°C from waste oak/beech biomass and its detailed physicochemical characterization was performed. The obtained characterization results were correlated with the adsorption capacity achieved under different process parameters, indicating that this sustainable carbon material can be considered as promising adsorbent in phenol-containing wastewater treatment processes.