The Effectiveness of Snail Shell as Adsorbent For The Treatment of Waste Water From Beverage Industries Using H3 Po4 As Activating Agent

The effectiveness of Snail Shell as adsorbent for the treatment of wastewater from beverage industries, using Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) as activating agent has been investigated. The snail shells were pyrolysed at 500C and partitioned into two parts; one part as sample A and the other further treated with the activating agent as sample B. The samples were characterized for some important properties such as porosity, surface area, organic content, moisture content, and pH; and sample B was used in all further experimental works. Wastewater from beverage industry was treated with the activated snail shell sample B, with a view to determining the extent of treatment with time. Some of the important wastewater parameters analyzed include: Biological oxygen Demand (BOD); Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD); Turbidity; Dissolved oxygen (DO); and Phosphate. The results obtained from the characterization of the snail shell adsorbent samples are: for sample A (Porosity, 48%; Surface area, 2567.32m; Organic content, 12.5%; Moisture content, 0.32%; pH, 8.76); and for sample B (Porosity 72%; Surface area, 2987.69m; Organic content, 7.3%; Moisture content, 0.27%; pH, 7.04). Also, the results of some of the physicochemical parameters of the waste water before and after treatment respectively, at a maximum time of 40mins are: 48mg/l and 16mg/l for BOD, 146mg/l and 37mg/l for COD, 41FAU and 1 FAU for turbidity, 1.8mg/l and 4.98mg/l for dissolved oxygen, 0.066mg/l and 0.0001mg/l for phosphate. In conclusion, this study has shown that activated carbon produced from snail shells can compete favorably with the conventional activated carbons in treating wastewater from beverage industry, using H3PO4 as an effective activating agent.