Track: Waste Management
Abstract
The sugar producing industry generates tons of bagasse as a waste product. This bagasse has the potential to be converted to bio char. In this study, sugarcane bagasse was converted to bio char at 600 ◦C for 3 hours and a heating rate of 10 ◦C/min using the pyrolysis technology. A bio char yield of 75% was achieved with a surface area of 500 m2/g and a particle size of <2mm. The bio char was used as an adsorbent media in sugarcane wastewater and the changes in the pH, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (Tot-N), total phosphate (Tot-P) and the total solids (TS) were monitored using standard methods. Application of the bagasse based bio char in sugarcane wastewater treatment resulted in the significant reduction of BOD, COD, Tot-N, Tot-P and TS by 85.1%, 84.8%, 74.8%, 76.5% and 84.7% respectively.