Sorption of phenol from synthetic aqueous solution by activated saw dust: Optimizing parameters with response surface methodology

Organic pollutants have an adverse effect on the neighboring environment. Industrial activates are the major sources of different organic pollutants. These primary pollutants react with surrounding and forms secondary pollutant, which persists for a long time. The present investigation has been carried out on the surface of activated sawdust for phenol eliminations. The process parameters initial concentration, contact time, adsorbent dose and pH were optimized by the response surface methodology (RSM). The numerical optimization of sawdust (SD), initial concentration 10 mg/l, contact time 1.5 h, adsorbent dose 4 g and pH 2, the optimum response result was 78.3% adsorption. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to judge the adequacy of the central composite design and quadratic model found to be suitable. The coefficient of determination values was found to be maximum Adj R² 0.7223, and Pre R² 0.5739 and significant regression at 95% confidence level values.