Removal of cationic surfactant (CTAB) from aqueous solution on to activated carbon obtained from corncob.

Direct and indirect releases of large quantities of surfactants to the environment may result in serious health and environmental problems. Therefore, surfactants should be removed from water before water is released to the environment or delivered for public use. Using powdered activated carbon (PAC) as adsorbent may be an effective technique to remove surfactants. In this study, the removal of surfactants by PAC was investigated and the influencesof the operating parameters on the effectiveness on adsorption rate were studied. Cationic surfactant, Cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) was selected for the experiments. A series of batch experiments were performed to determine the sorption isotherms of surfactants to PAC. The results showed that carbon structure affect mainly on the surfactant adsorption. Surfactant equilibrium data fitted very well to the binary langmuir model. The pseudo first-,second- order and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models were applied. Both, the external mass transfer and intraparticle diffusion mechanisms involve in CTAB sorption.