Wastewater treatment for flexographic printing factory by adsorption with corn cob charcoal

Abstract

The objectives of this research are 1) to study the treatment of wastewater from flexographic printing factory by using corn cob charcoal in adsorption process and 2) to examine the efficiency of corn cob charcoal in color compared with activated carbon. The wastewater from R United Printing (Public) Co., Ltd. was examined and shown that absorbance value was 3.055 at wavelength 214 nm. The wastewater was then pre-treated by precipitation with 20-g alum. The reddish color was remained in water with the absorbance value at 572 nm of 0.037. The residue contaminant was removed by adsorption with corn cob charcoal by stirring with 5 and 10 g, respectively. The treated water after adsorption with 10-g corn cob charcoal was the best which could reduce the absorbance value at 0.025 or 99.18% color removal. It was indicated that the efficiency of 10-g corn cob charcoal was near 5-g activated carbon which could reduce better than corn cob charcoal with the efficiency of 99.41%.