Bentonite Clay as Effective Adsorbent in Natural Rubber Industry Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

The natural rubber processing industry’s wastewater is typically highly concentrated in organic compounds, suspended solid, colour, ammonia, nitrogen and other pollutants. Any excessive amount of ammonia and nitrogen discharged, eutrophication and the death of various aquatic creatures will take place in every water bodies. The goal of this experiment was to investigate the effectiveness of bentonite as an adsorbent for removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammoniacal nitrogen, and colour from natural rubber processing industry’s wastewater. The samples of wastewater from natural rubber processing industry for this study were acquired directly from the discharging point of a manufacturer in Kluang, Malaysia. The effects of optimum adsorbent pH, dosage, shaking speed, and contact time, were determined based on removal of COD, ammoniacal nitrogen and colour, where obtained result reveals that the best batch was achieved at pH 7, 4g, 150 rpm and 120 minutes respectively. For all batch of experiments, the best removal efficiency of all three aspects; COD, ammoniacal nitrogen and colour was typically found in the range of 85%. Bentonite is expected to have great potential and demand for wastewater treatment in the near future. Various challenges and potentials in using bentonite and its composites highlighted and some future prospects for Bentonite-based adsorbents are proposed.