ISSN 2736-1756
Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research Vol. 2006
Available online at http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ajmr
© 2006 International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Degradation of anthracene: Influence of adsorbents from inorganic activation
Owabor C. N.* and Saniyo E.
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Accepted 15 September, 2005
Abstract
The use of rice and melon husks in their raw, carbonized (at 400°C and 600°C) and activated (using 10%, v/v orthophosphoric acid) form to catalyze the degradation of anthracene in sandy soil was investigated. Rice husk carbonized at 600°C and activated was found to be a better adsorbent than melon husk under same condition. After five weeks of degradation experiment the anthracene reduced from an initial concentration of 5000 to 1009.7 and 1200.2 µg/g soil for rice and melon husks, respectively, while the control reduced to 2671.0 µg/g soil. Result of the batch degradation process of anthracene was found to follow first order heterogeneous kinetics with rice husk carbonized at 600°C and activated having the fastest reaction rate constant of 0.0018 h-1 followed by melon husk with 0.0016 h-1 while the control had 0.0009 h-1.The regression coefficients obtained from the analysis of the experimental data used to test the order of reaction were greater than 88% showing a good reliability of the data obtained.
Key words: Degradation, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, anthracene, rice husk, melon husk.