FIXED BED COLUMN STUDIES FOR THE SORPTION OF PARA-NITROPHENOL FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS USING CROSS-LINKED STARCH BASED POLYMER

In this work, fixed bed column experiments were carried out to investigate the adsorption characteristics of para-nitrophenol (pNP) by cross-linked starch based polymers using hexamethylene diisocynate (HMDI) as a cross-linking agent. The native and cross-linked starch polymer was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Effect of design parameters, such as influent concentration, bed height and flow rate on the breakthrough characteristics of the adsorption system were determined. The column experiments on crosslinked starch showed that the adsorption efficiency increased with increase in the influent concentration, bed height and decreased with increasing flow rate. Yoon-Nelson model was used to analyse the column performance and it was observed that the experimental data was well fitted with Yoon-Nelson model.