摘要：Adsorption process is widely used for removal of organic pollutants from aqueous media. As commercially available activated carbon is an efficient adsorbent, but its practical use is limited due to its high cost and complicated regeneration process. The aim of this investigation is to explore the potentiality of coal flyash as an alternative adsorbent for phenol removal from aqueous media. The coal flyash is characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) which shows the presence of quartz, alumina, hematite and different mineral matters. Batch type experimental studies are performed on synthetic wastewater involving different parameters like particle size of flyash, pH effect and temperature. The experimental data are analyzed by Langmuir models in order to describe the equilibrium isotherms (R2 > 0.96). The adsorption of phenol is decreased withincreasing particle size and pH but increases with temperature. The study shows that coal flyash can be used as a new andeffective adsorbent material for the removal of phenol from aqueous media. It was found that these low cost flyash adsorbentdemonstrated good removal capability for phenol and hence can be used economically on large scale.
