MANUFACTURING OF ACTIVATED CARBON USING DISPOSABLE COCONUT SHELLS FOR CATALYTIC ACTIVITIES AND WATER TREATMENT UTILIZATIONS

Activated carbon is a black color solid compound which is fabricated using naturally occurring materials such as woods and species of coal that composed of the majority in carbon. The activated carbon is highly remarkable compound in the catalytic activities in most of chemical industries and water treatment activities because of the significant performances of such activated carbon due to the sufficiency of the surface property which is called as the adsorption with the couple of high porosity. The manufacturing of activated carbon from disposable coconut shells and the investigations of the physic-chemical characteristics of such activated carbon were the expectances of the existing research. Domestically collected coconut shells were burnt in the range of different temperatures 390°C–300°C after removing unnecessary constituents. The chemical composition of the powdered activated carbon was inspected using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrophotometer and the surfaces of prepared activated carbon were examined using an optical microscope. As the outcomes of the above experiments, it seems that the most adequate burning temperature for the manufacturing of that batch of coconut shells was in the range of 330°C–350°C, 68.85% of ferrous and 31.15% of potassium as the composed metallic element apart from the non metallic carbon and the pure black color non- composite surfaces were observed under the microscopic studies. It is encouraged to develop this production using cost effective materials such as the shells of fesults which are belonging to the palm cast while utilizing the productions through the various applications in chemical industrie

Performance of tropical vertical subsurface flow constructed wetlands for leachate treatment at different hydraulic loading rates

This study is focused on the investigation of three different types of plant species namely; Narrow leaf Cattail (Typha angustifolia), Green Bulrush (Scirpus atrovirens) and Umbrella Palm (Cyperus alternifolius) for treatment of leachate. Twelve laboratory scale subsurface flow constructed wetland models were operated in batch mode. Four models, each containing similar plant species were fed with synthetic leachate having four different concentrations (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and 7 days HRT was given. The duration of a batch run was 12 weeks. Removal efficiencies of BOD5, COD, PO43-, TC, and TN were measured. Evapotranspiration (ET) loss of each test run was also assessed. According to the results, the constructed wetland planted with Umbrella palm and fed with 25% leachate showed the best pollutant removal efficiencies of 99.26% for BOD5, 99.61% for COD, 98.78% for TN and 97.34%for TC. Highest ET potential of 93.57% was also observed from the constructed wetland with umbrella palm fed with 25% leachate. Two way ANOVA analysis was carried out for each plant species and leachate concentration and the Umbrella Palm species was identified as the best for leachate treatment.Key words: Constructed wetlands, landfill leachate, plant species and pollutant remova

Physico-Chemical Characteristic of a Petroleum Contaminated Soil from the Spill site of Jaffna District.

Contamination of soil with petroleum products is among the most common sources of pollution in an industrialized world. This poses severe threats to the local communities and the ecosystem. Consequences of soil contaminations by petroleum products are multi-dimensional and thus their assessment has remained major problem. The presence of total organic carbon (TOC), heavy metals, electrical conductivity (EC) and pH were determined from petroleum contaminated soil samples from the spilled location of power plant premises of Chunnakam, Jaffna district. Three spilled locations have been identified and samples were collected from each location for this study. Control samples were collected from the uncontaminated location from the area same as the geology of the affected area. Results revealed that the heavy metal content of lead and nickel were higher than those of the control site and the recommended permissible limit. Evidence of severe hydrocarbon contamination was confirmed by presence of elevated level total organic carbon in the contaminated soil. Other analyzed metals including ferrous and manganese and physical parameters such as electrical conductivity and pH in the impacted zone have not shown any significant differences, while compared to the control samples