Applied Chemical Engineering

Waste Tire Rubber–Derived Activated Carbon for Wastewater Treatment

Khadeeja Hatif Yamer

Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq

Abbas Khalaf Mohammad

Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/ace.v9i1.5887

Keywords: Waste tire rubber; Activated carbon; Dye adsorption; Methyl orange; Wastewater treatment.

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Abstract

The adsorption performance of activated carbon derived from waste tire rubber for the removal of methyl orange dye from aqueous solutions was investigated in the present laboratory-scale experiment. The activated carbon was prepared from ground waste tire rubber via chemical activation using potassium hydroxide (KOH) and hydrochloric acid (HCl). The carbonization process was conducted at 300 °C for 1 h, followed by further heating at 800 °C for 2 h under a nitrogen atmosphere. Chemical activation was carried out using 4 M (mol L⁻¹) KOH or HCl, followed by a final activation step at 800 °C for 1 h.

Surface morphology and textural properties were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. The BET surface areas of HCl-activated and KOH-activated carbons reached 925 m² g⁻¹ and 1048 m² g⁻¹, respectively. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted at initial dye concentrations of 50–200 mg L⁻¹ and temperatures ranging from 20 to 35 °C. Maximum dye removal efficiencies of 97.5 % and 98.7 % were achieved for HCl-activated and KOH-activated carbons, respectively. Equilibrium data were well described by the Langmuir isotherm model, indicating monolayer adsorption on a relatively homogeneous surface. The results confirm that waste tire rubber is a promising and sustainable precursor for producing high-performance activated carbon for wastewater treatment applications.

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