Application of Taguchi method in activated carbon adsorption process of phenol removal from ceramic gasifier wastewater

Abstract

Ceramic gasifier wastewater (CGWW) contains organic toxic substances such as phenolic compounds and direct disposal of CGWW into the ground and surface water causes severe environmental impacts. Therefore, phenol removal from CGWW is utmost important to safeguard the natural water resources. Adsorption technique using activated carbon is employed to lessen the impacts of phenol. However, the pollution load on CGWW is very high and necessitates pretreatment using coagulation-flocculation process. Further, the sanctity of each parameter on phenol removal has to study by varying all-dominating parameters simultaneously and determined its significance. Therefore, Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array (OA) design is used in this study to optimize the carbon adsorption process on CGWW. The most governing parameters are time (30−60 min), temperature (30−60 °C) and liquid to solid, L/S (5−15) ratio and it is prioritized in the following order L/S>Temperature>Time. The optimized experimental conditions, i.e., time 30 min., temperature 45 °C at L/S 5 was predicted and that demonstrated 96% phenol removal from CGWW. The predicted results of Taguchi’s OA is compared with an experimental analysis showed a good agreement (R2 > 0.97) with each other and vital significance. Accordingly, it is concluded that the Taguchi method is a promising, efficient, and cost-effective technique for the industry to minimize the experiments and maximize the phenol removing efficiency.