Simulation of Phenol and Chlorophenol Removal Using Combined Adsorption and Biodegradation: Regression Analysis and Data-Mining Approach

: 20 It is widely known that phenols and chlorophenols (CP) are two of the most toxic chemicals 21 and a versatile treatment is imperative to tackle this evil of industrialization. Adsorption using 22 low-cost adsorbents is advantageous and economical; however, it has not turned out to be 23 feasible technology. Biological treatment is much more flexible, useful, and environmentally 24 friendly and a combination of biological treatment and adsorption has yielded much better 25 results compared to using them individually. However, very few works are applying statistical 26 methods in elucidating the importance of various options in such a combined study. This work 27 focused on the effect of temperature, initial concentration of chemicals and adsorbent dosage 28 on the removal of these chemicals. Furthermore, it compares various processes, viz., biological 29 treatment (bio), sequential biological and adsorption (seq), and simultaneous biological and 30 adsorption (sim) methods in treating phenols and chlorophenols. A range of linear regression 31 models was developed to predict the percentage reduction for each of the processes used