INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BIO-SILICA PRODUCED FROM SARAWAK BARIO RICE HUSK ASH (BRHA) AS SORBENTS

PATRICK, AJAI (2018) INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BIO-SILICA PRODUCED FROM SARAWAK BARIO RICE HUSK ASH (BRHA) AS SORBENTS. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

There are abundant of biomass wastes produced from paddy-based agricultural industries. For instant, most of the rice-producing countries will normally burn or dump the rice husk as wastes. This has led to increasing in many environmental problems such as greenhouse effects and pollutions. As rice husk wastes are rich in silica, as proven by many research analysis, this study aims to investigate the potential of bio-silica extracted from Sarawak Bario rice husk ash (BRHA) as sorbents for the absorption of moisture as well as adsorption of dyes and heavy metals at both laboratory and industry scales. Besides, as the conventional manufacturing (smelting) process of pure silica from natural quartz uses intensive energy up to 1300°C, this research work analyzes the capability of the extracted bio-silica produced at lower combustion temperatures to minimize the energy consumption. The collected raw material, which is the Bario Rice husk (BRH), initially undergoes acid pre-treatment using 1M hydrochloric acid (HCl) to remove the available impurities and increase the silica yield in the extraction process. The husks are then combusted at five different combustion temperatures; 400°C, 500°C, 600°C, 700°C and 800°C, before they undergo the silica extraction process in which the BRHA produced are gelified and aged at four different aging periods of 4, 6, 12 and 18 hours to produce the bio-silica sorbents. Several characterization analysis were carried out to determine the physicochemical properties of BRHA and chemical properties of produced bio-silica sorbents. This analysis includes colour analysis, weight loss analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Lastly, several capability tests are conducted to test for the effectiveness of the produced bio-silica sorbents for the absorption of moisture and adsorption of dyes and heavy metals at both laboratory and industry scales.

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