Abstract:
Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE) is a solid waste generated from the palm oil (CPO) bleaching industry. SBE has potential as an adsorbent, but its adsorption capacity is still limited and needs to be improved. In this study, the adsorption capacity of SBE was enhanced by compositing it with chitosan. To improve adsorbent stability, the SBE-chitosan composite was crosslinked using 10% epichlorohydrin. The resulting crosslinked SBE-chitosan composite was tested for its ability to adsorb heavy metal Fe(II). Determination of the optimum pH was carried out with pH variations of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Meanwhile, the effect of contact time was tested with time variations of 30, 50, 70, 90, and 110 minutes. The results showed that adsorption reached optimum at pH 5, with a contact time of 110 minutes. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained was 1.85 mg/gram. The infrared spectrum shows that there has been an interaction between the epichlorohydrin crosslinked SBE-chitosan composite and heavy metal Fe(II), as evidenced by the shift in wave numbers and the addition of functional groups. This indicates that this modification can improve the performance of SBE as a heavy metal adsorbent.
