2015-2016 ANNUAL REPORT
Environmental T R A N S F O R M AT I O N Engineers use invasive plant to improve water quality BY ERICA MARTIN
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tudents and instructors from FSU Panama City’s civil engineering program have determined how to use an invasive plant to remove water pollutants. In the study, professors Dr. Hafiz Ahmad and Dr. Korhan Adalier and graduate students Brandon Madden and Douglas Brown tested methods to superheat and steam oxidize the Albizia plant, also called a silk plant or mimosa, to produce an activated carbon that best removes phenol from waste waters. Phenols are toxic organic pollutants commonly found in wastewater from oil refineries, coal tar plants and pharmaceutical and steel industries. It also is used to make plastics, pesticides, insecticides and disinfectants.
“Phenol removal from water using biochar and activated carbon from Albizia: an invasive plant evaluation” won second place for Outstanding Paper Award at the Eighth International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology in Houston this June. Comparing the adsorption performance, the study suggests that phenol removal can be enhanced significantly when biochar is activated with steam and converted to activated carbon. The material produced by activating biochar with steam at 1500 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes removed the most phenol from water and was 1.5 times more effective than the biochar produced without steam. Even a small dose of 100 milligrams per liter removed more than 96 percent of the phenol. Because the activated carbon produced in the study is carbon-negative, the research also could help reverse climate change, Ahmad noted.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists phenol as a priority pollutant, with regulations called for lowering its content in wastewater to less than 1 milligram per liter.
Brown is continuing research on the effects of using the activated carbon as a soil additive or amendment in agriculture.
“We’re taking an invasive species — something that is a bane to society — and transforming it into something that’s useful,” Madden said.
“Because it has lots of pores, if you use it as a fertilizer it can not only increase water-holding capacity but also microbial activity in the soil,” Ahmad said.
WASTE REMOVAL: Top, left, instructors Dr. Hafiz Ahmad and Dr. Korhan Adalier and graduate students Brandon Madden and Douglas Brown tested methods to superheat and steam the Albizia plant, also called a silk plant or mimosa, to produce an activated carbon that best removes phenol from waste waters. Top, right, the process of turning Albizia plant pellets into activated carbon.
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