P. KUMARARAJA, M. MURALIDHAR, R. SARASWATHY AND A. NAGVEL
Abstract
With the objective sequestering the carbon from the aquaculture pond sediment, biochar was synthesized by slow pyrolysis process from the sediment collected from L. vannamei shrimp pond. Batch study with varying experimental conditions such as adsorbent dose, pH, contact time and temperature were conducted to assess the phosphorous sorption capacity of biochars. The adsorption data were fitted best with the Freundlich equations. The Langmuir maximum monolayer adsorption capacity was found to be 7.9 mg phosphate per gram of biochar. Adsorption of phosphate by biochars were reduced with increasing pH, chemisorption is the major mechanism of phosphate sorption. The biochar synthesized from organic carbon rich aquaculture pond sediment not only sequesters the carbon and minimizes GHG emission, but also can be used to treat waster waters rich in phosphate