Adsorption performance of durian husk as activated carbon to reduce heavy metals concentration in aqueous solution.

The potential of durian husk waste biomass as a novel and potential bio-based adsorbent to replace the use of silica gel as commercial adsorbent was investigated. Chemical activation process has been applied to activate this durian husk by using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as the activating agent. The adsorption was performed in manipulating the contact time and weight factors by treating the heavy metals in aqueous solutions. The range of contact time used for this research is 20 min to 80 min. for the weight, the maximum and minimum weight range used in this research is from 0.1 gram to 1.0 gram. Then the adsorption performance is compared between the Durian Husk Activated Carbon (DHAC) and the silica gel. The results obtained were shows that the contact time and weight factors are not significant in reducing heavy metals used in this study. However, from this research. the adsorptions performance of DHAC is more effectives than silica gel. The higher percentage of heavy metals that can be reduced by DHAC is 96.02% which is cadmium. However, for silica gel, maximum of heavy metals concentration that can be reduces is only for 1 1.86% which is lead.