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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #194714
Title: GRANULAR ACTIVATED CARBONS FROM AGRICULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS: POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS IN DRINKING WATER AND MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENTS.

Author
item BANSODE, RISHIPAL - LSU AGRICULTURAL CENTER
item AHMEDNA, MOHAMED - NORTH CAROLINA A&T UNIVER
item Marshall, Wayne
item RAO, RAMU - LSU AGRICULTURAL CENTER
item HUSSEINY, ABDO - TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

Submitted to: Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/14/2005
Publication Date: 7/8/2005
Citation: Bansode, R.R., Ahmedna, M., Marshall, W.E., Rao, R.M., Husseiny, A.A. 2005. Granular activated carbons from agricultural by-products: potential applications in drinking water and municipal wastewater treatments. Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin. p. 884.

Interpretive Summary: The nutshells from tree nut crops grown in the U.S., such as almond, walnut and pecan, are a large but underutilized commodity. Their conversion to activated carbon represents a potential value-added use for the cleanup of both drinking water and municipal wastewater. Scientists at the USDA-ARS, Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans have converted almond, walnut and pecan shells to activated carbons that have been shown to be effective in the removal of both metal and organic contaminants commonly found in drinking water and municipal wastewater. These carbons were shown to be equivalent to or in most cases better than comparable commercial carbons made from coal or coconut shell. These results point out that tree nutshell-based carbons should be considered as good candidates and potential replacements for commercial carbons in these applications.

Technical Abstract: Activated carbons are used routinely in the drinking water and wastewater treatment industries to remove principally organic contaminants. While coconut shell-based carbons are used in these applications, nutshell-based carbons from tree nuts originating from domestic or U.S. sources have not been used commercially. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of tree nutshell-based carbons in removing contaminants commonly found in drinking water and municipal wastewater. By screening activated carbons derived from almond, walnut and pecan shells, a binary mixture of phosphoric acid-activated almond shells and steam-activated walnut shells was particularly effective in removing lead, copper and zinc ions from simulated drinking water. This mixture was statistically more effective in removing these ions than four commercial filtration systems. In addition, this nutshell-based carbon mixture was also an excellent system for removing trihalomethanes from simulated drinking water and performed significantly better than comparable commercial filtration products. Phosphoric acid-activated pecan shells were shown to be particularly good and significantly better than a comparable commercial carbon at sequestering divalent metal ions from simulated municipal wastewater while steam-activated pecan shells were statistically as good or better than three commercial carbons in removing chemical oxygen demand (COD) or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from municipal wastewater. Based on our overall results, the use of tree nutshell-based carbons, either phosphoric acid activated or steam activated or used in combination, should be considered as a viable option in drinking water and municipal wastewater systems as a replacement for commercial carbons.