Preparation and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Gayo Coffee Shell as an Adsorbent for Removal of Lead (Pb) in Liquid Waste

Adsorption been a popular low-cost and environmentally friendly method that can be used to reduce heavy metals in wastewater especially with the use of biomass-sourced sorbents. In this study, the adsorbent was prepared from the coffee shell. The Performance of the prepared adsorbent was studied on the adsorption of Pb(II). The initial concentration of Pb(II) solution used was 300 mg/L and contact time was varied to 0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 minutes. The characteristics of the sorbent were studied in terms of moisture content, ash content, and adsorption of I2. Further characterizations of the coffee shell sorbent were also carried out using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectrophotometer (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Surface Area Analyzer (SAA). The characterization results showed that the prepared sorbent meets the quality requirements according to SNI 06-3730-1995. The results from the adsorption process revealed that the maximum absorption capacity that can be performed by sorbent was 170.26 mg/g at the equilibrium time of 90 minutes. In conclusion, the coffee shell can be a potential biomass material to prepare adsorbent with high removal performance of heavy metal.