Removal Of Benzene and Toluene from Artificial Wastewater with Adsorbents Developed from Rice Husk

Rice husk has a very large potential to be developed in an absorbent. The aim of this
study is to develop rice husk into an adsorbent for the removal of benzene and toluene from
artificial wastewater. Rice husk is an abundant source of agricultural waste that can be found
all overthe world. Rice huskwas treated by burning it in a furnace at certain temperature for
one and three hours. Properties of the treated rice husk was examined by using
characterization equipments such as Scanning Electron Microscope and Fourier Transform
Infrared Resonance. The performance was found through a batch experiment where lOOppm
of artificial wastewater containing benzene and toluene respectively were mix with the
developed adsorbent. It was found from the experiment that the highest removal efficiency
for the removal of benzene is 80% while toluene is 85%. It is concluded that this experiment
was able to developed rice husk into an adsorbent for the removal of benzene and toluene
from artificial wastewater.