Study on the Use of Activated Clay in Removal of Molasses from Wastewater in Wastewater Treatment Processes

Different treatment techniques; based on physical, chemical or biological processes, are used in the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater streams. One of the widely used physical processes is the adsorption process using activated carbon. A modified process utilizing a combined activated carbon-clay mixture was adopted in the present study providing improved efficiency. The present work investigated the effect of the acid and alkali activated clay on the removal efficiency of molasses from a wastewater stream. Acid activated clay resulted in improved efficiency (85%) compared with alkali activated clay. The efficiency of removal increased with increasing the contact time, decreasing the initial pollutant concentration and increasing the solid to liquid ratio. The use of air circulation resulted in an increase in the rate of adsorption since the adsorption process is exothermic. It was also observed that the concentration of microorganisms produced increased as the process is left for an extended period of time. Finally, it was found that the Freundlich isotherm successfully described the adsorption process at all conditions while the Langmuir isotherm described the process only at low concentration of activated clay