THE STUDY OF BINTARO (Cerbera manghas) FRUIT SHELL AS ADSORBENT TO REDUCE PHOSPHATE FROM THE ARTIFICIAL SAMPLE OF LAUNDRY WASTEWATER

Abstract

Laundry wastewater is dangerous if it is immediately disposed into river without treating it first. One of the chemicals in laundry wastewater is a phosphate compound. If laundry wastewater is discharged directly into the river, it will increase the phosphate content as a nutrient in river water which can be dangerous for living creatures. The high nutrient in the river will cause eutrophication which will adversely affect aquatic biota. One treatment that can be done is the process of adsorption with activated carbon made from bintaro (Cerbera manghas) fruit shells. The objectives of this research are to determine the optimum contact time that results in the most decrease phosphate content and determine the optimum of doses of activated carbon. The last is to know the type of isotherm that occurs in adsorption method. This research was carried out by a laboratory experimental method. The experiment starts with a process of making activated carbon, which starts from carbonization and then activation. Preparation is making the artificial sample. The experiment is doing the variation time and doses. The optimum contact time with the same dose of adsorbent is 30 minutes. In the testing of dose variations, it was found that doses of 3 grams is the optimum dose. This is because of the large amount of adsorbent that is put into the wastewater, which causes the activated carbon stack up with each other. Finally, the type of isotherm in this adsorption tends to be the Langmuir.