BREADFRUIT LEAVES WASTE AS AN ECOFRIENDLY AND EFFECTIVE BIOSORBENT IN REMOVING OIL WASTE

Abstract

The breadfruit leaves (Artocarpusaltilis) can be easily found in Malaysia and natural adsorbents in removing oil waste. This study focused on determining the performance of untreated breadfruit leaves and chemically modified breadfruit leaves with hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Vegetable oil, diesel, petrol and lubricant has been used to examine the performance of breadfruit leaves. At the highest packing density of 0.09 g/cm3, the oil dripped out from the breadfruit leaves was 3.8% for treated breadfruit leaves with NaOH, 4.8% for breadfruit leaves treated with HCl and 5.8% for untreated breadfruit leaves. The percentage of oil removal data showed that chemically modified breadfruit leaves are more efficient as it has undergone further treatment that enhances breadfruit leaves characteristic as natural sorbents. In the adsorbent reusability testing, the reusability of breadfruit leaves can be observed as the chemically modified breadfruit leaves achieved a constant value sooner than untreated breadfruit leaves at the 4th and 5th cycle while the untreated breadfruit leaves only achieved the constant value at 6th and 7th cycle. This condition shows that chemically modified breadfruit leaves can retain the adsorbed oil without losing it than the untreated breadfruit leaves. It is proved that chemically modified breadfruit leaves can perform better in each testing compared to untreated breadfruit leaves.