%0 Journal Article %T Adsorption, Kinetic and Thermodynamic Study for Removal of Nickel Ions by Activated Carbon from Palm Kernel %J Iranica Journal of Energy & Environment %I Babol Noshirvani University of Technology %Z 2079-2115 %A Erhayem, M. %A Gaith, R. %A Otman, O. E. %A Frage, M. U. %D 2020 %\ 12/01/2020 %V 11 %N 4 %P 339-350 %! Adsorption, Kinetic and Thermodynamic Study for Removal of Nickel Ions by Activated Carbon from Palm Kernel %K Adsorption Isotherms %K Adsorption Kinetic %K nickel %K Palm kernel %K Thermodynamic %R 10.5829/ijee.2020.11.04.12 %X Palm kernel (PK) was activated by chemical activation (HNO3 at 230oC) to remove Ni(II) ions from aqueous solutions. Physicochemical properties of PK were reported. FT-IR analysis revealed changes in wave numbers and absorbance indicating Ni(II) adsorption onto activated carbon-PK surface. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique was used to determine the content of metals in activated carbon-PK and showed the metals found in activated carbon-PK were in recommended human usages. The maximum removal of Ni(II) ions was to be 49.7% at pH 4.6 and the equilibrium reached at 80 min. The removal efficiency of Ni(II) ions increased as the dosage of activated-PK increases and the optimum amount of activated carbon-PK dose was found to be 70 mg. The optimum pH was 4.6. The isotherm, kinetics and thermodynamics were studied. The Ni(II)- activated carbon-PK adsorption was found to follow the Freundlich isotherm based on correlation coefficient (R2) values and to be physical adsorption from the mean free energy found by Dubinin-Radushkevich, which confirmed by isothermal microcalorimetry data and the heat of sorption process using Temkin Isotherm model to be 1.58 kJ/mol. The adsorption kinetic data were described well by a second order, with the kinetic constant rates in the range of 1.82-83.5 g/g.min and was not controlled by intra-particle diffusion model. The thermodynamic studies showed that the Ni(II)-ACPK adsorption process is exothermic due to the negative values of ∆H (-30.9 J/mol) and is physical nature process due to the negative values of ∆S (-14.9 J/mol). The magnitude of Ea is 15.04 kJ/mol, which is proven the physical adsorption in nature. %U https://www.ijee.net/article_119992_25b300ec9f3bdc6bd0095287b37c01af.pdf