Adsorption of Hydrogen Sulphide by Commercialized Rice Husk Biochar (RHB) & Hydrogel Biochar Composite (RH-HBC)
Ashadi Azwan Abd Rahman1, Azil Bahari Alias2, Nurul Najihah Jaffar3, Muhamad Ariff Amir Hamzah4, Wan Azlina Wan Ab Karim Ghani5
1Ashadi Azwan Abd Rahman, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
2Azil Bahari Alias, Centre of Industrial Process Reliability & Sustainability (INPRES), Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
3Nurul Najihah Jaafar, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
4Muhamad Ariff Amir Hamzah, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
5Wan Azlina Wan Ab Karim Ghani, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Sustainable Process Engineering Research Centre (SPERC), Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 

Manuscript received on November 20, 2019. | Revised Manuscript received on November 28, 2019. | Manuscript published on 30 November, 2019. | PP: 6864-6870 | Volume-8 Issue-4, November 2019. | Retrieval Number: D5207118419/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijrte.D5207.118419

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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a naturally occurring component found during microbial disintegration and processing of natural gas & oil which can cause wellbeing and condition issue if being discharged into a climate at high fixation. Activated carbon which cost a lot in manufacturing is used as an adsorbent for removing these hazardous gases. As an alternative, the abundance waste of biomass available can be converted into good use. Biochar is one of the most practical and promising adsorbents that shows incredible potential as an adsorbent for the expulsion of contaminants in wastewater and gas treatment. This study covered on the characteristics and adsorption performance of two adsorbents Activated Rice Husk Biochar (RHB) and Rice Husk Hydrogel Composite (RH-HBC) on hydrogen sulfide. RHB is prepared by treating grinded rice husk biochar using aqueous Zinc Chloride (ZnCl2) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) solution to increase the size of pores of active sites and remove the impurities present in on the adsorbents. Polymerization is conducted by using initiator (ammonium persulfate, APS), monomer (acrylamide, AAm) and crosslinker (N,N’-methylenebisacrylamide,MBA) to create treated hydrogel biochar (RH-HBC). The adsorption performance is done to evaluate the effect of sorbent weight (20 g, 25 g, 30 g), H2S gas flow rate (200 L/hr, 150 L/hr, 100 L/hr) and temperature (30℃, 50℃, 70℃). RHB shows better porosity compared to RH-HBC where it has a higher surface area (222.85m2/g) compared to RH-HBC (8.68m2/g). While the presence of alkene group C=C in RH-HBC gives more stability to withstand high temperature compared to RHB. From the result, it can be concluded that the increased the sorbent weight, give an increased in adsorption capacity. When increased the gas flow rate, it gives a shorter contact time between gas and adsorbent which result in less adsorption capacity. RH-HBC give longest breakthrough time and highest adsorption capacity compared with RHB in all experiment.
Keywords: Biochar, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Elemental Analysis (EA), Fourier Transform infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Hydrogel Biochar Composite, Thermogravimetry Analysis (TGA).
Scope of the Article:  Composite Materials.