Review on Applications of Adsorbents to Remove Phenolic Compounds from Wastewater

Population growth and technological and industrial development are governing factors in increase of water consumption, wastewater production and environmental pollution which raise the need for investments to be made in treatment and disposal of wastewater. Due to their toxicity even in very low concentrations, Phenols are of great environmental importance among organic compounds. The limit for phenol in effluent discharge is typically 0.1 mg/l and the World Health Organization has established the maximum level of phenol compounds in drinking water allowable as 1  mg/l. Phenol and phenolic compounds are present in many industrial and domestic wastewaters and due to their toxicity, they must be effectively removed from the wastewater. In this work, the removal of phenolic compounds from wastewater is investigated on low cost adsorptions. The effect of parameters like pH, temperature, initial phenol concentration, and amount of adsorbent is investigated. The studies showed that low cost absorbents like adsorbent derived from the natural materials, waste materials from agriculture and industry have high potential and flexibility compared to many other methods for removing phenolic compounds. It is shown that adsorbents with high surface activation, surface area and porosity have higher performance.