Using Olive Stone as a Filtering Media for Industrial Wastewater

Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of alternate filtering media on the industrial wastewater treatment. Crushed olive stones were activated by carbonization at 773 K for two hours. The resulting activated carbon was used to remove basic blue dye (methylene blue). The influence of several factors governing the adsorption of methylene blue such as dosage, temperature, pH and contact time in addition to specific surface area of the prepared carbon have been investigated. The filter design chosen is based on three units; pH modification unit to reach industrial water between 5.5-6, a thermal unit to keep temperature at 313 K and filtering media with short residence time designed for mostly methylene blue removal. The effects of the inlet dye concentration, the flow rate, height of the column, and particles size on adsorption were studied. The results indicated that the highest dye removal of 87.8% was obtained under the following particle size of (0.5-1mm), flow rate of 4 cm³ min^-1, fixed bed height of 4 cm, and MB concentrations of 8 mg L^-1. The highest bed capacity achieved of 5.56 mg g^-1 at 20 mg L^-1 was recorded MB, 4 mL min^-1, a bed height of 4 cm, and particle of 0.5-1 mm.