Populus Tree Wood: A Noble Bioresource from Western Himalayas for the Development of Various Carbon Types for the Effective Application in Environment Protection i.e., Phenol Adsorption from Wastewater

Populus tree is one of the extensively available Bioresource in the foothills of Western Himalayas. Apart from its multifarious utilities, the activated carbon from the poplar wood has also been finding its enormous use in combating environmental contaminants. Waste aqueous effluents containing various hazardous chemicals, heavy metals and dyes etc. cause serious environmental problems which ultimately affect both flora and fauna adversely. Activated carbon (AC) is being widely used adsorbent for the removal of organic pollutants. The poplar wood carbon (PWC) when chemically activated with NaOH, HCl, HNO3, H3PO4, H2SO4, CH3COOH and ZnCl2 caused significant increase in surface area and pore size development. All the chemically activated carbons (CACs) were subjected to extensive physiochemical studies like SEM, XRD, FTIR, EDAX and surface area etc. Among all the carbons, the SEM and surface area analysis of H2SO4 activated carbon showed the maximum pore size of 7.1 μm and leading surface area of 1045 m2/g. These carbons are acidic with their pHzpc in the range of 3.6 to 4.1. The carbon is amorphous in nature as it is showing three typical broad peaks around 26.5, 44.4 and 80° in all the samples. Among the bulk density of these carbons, ZnCl2 and H2SO4 activated carbons have maximum of 428 and 427 kg/m3 respectively. The utilization of these carbons in environmental protection has been studied by carrying out adsorption studies for the removal of phenol. Direct proportion of phenol adsorption to the adsorbent concentration was well established. Effect of contact time on adsorption of phenol using 0.5 gm of adsorbent with 25 ml of 1000 ppm adsorbate showed 100% removal of phenol and the equilibrium was attained in almost an hour. Preliminary studies using poplar wood carbon for the elimination of highly hazardous contaminants has been carried out and the results have been very encouraging.