Oil Spill Remediation by Adsorption Using Two Forms of Activated Carbon in Marine Environment

The removal of diesel oil from water by activated carbon and magnetically modified activated carbon (MAC) produced from agricultural waste like banana stem was investigated. Batch adsorption technique was followed by varying pH (2 to 10), adsorbent dosage (0.05 to 1.5 gm), contact time (5 to 70 min) and initial concentration (200 to 4500 mg/L) to obtain optimum parameters. The magnetized activated carbon exhibited a greater removal (97%) compared to non-magnetized activated carbon (83 %). FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), FESEM and XRD were used to characterize the adsorbents. Kinetic and isotherm studies were also executed. The experimental result fitted well with Freundlich model (R
²
= 0.99) and pseudo second order kinetic model (R
²
= 0.99) for MAC.