Removal of Anionic Surfactant from Wastewater using Sawdust, Polymerized Sawdust and Sawdust Carbon

The largest consumption of alkylarylsulfonates is in laundry detergents, but light duty dishwashing preparations also consume major portion of LABS in their production. These materials are usually applied in highly concentrated form and rely on mechanical action to do a great deal of the cleaning job. After its use it is considered as waste and gets entered in effluent stream. Alkylaryl sulfonates interact with skin and causes irritation and increase permeation by other compounds. Adverse effects were found with 0.5% alkyl aryl sulfonate in the diet. Growth of animals was retarded at 1 and 2 % levels. In the present study the batch removal of sodiumdodecyl benzene sulfonate from wastewater under different experimental conditions using economic adsorbent, i.e., sawdust, polymerized sawdust, sawdust carbon was investigated by sorption technique. The results were analyzed by applying Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The effects of pH, concentration, agitation speed and adsorbent dose have been reported. All adsorbents were found efficient to remove SDBS from solution. The batch kinetics has been tested for first order and second order reactions and the rate constants were calculated. Effect of temperature has been studied to calculate various thermodynamic parameters.