The Utilization of Sugarcane Bagasse to Remove Cr (VI) Heavy Metal Waste with Adsorption

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse obtained from sugar factories is the residue that is usually left behind and considered
useless. In fact, sugarcane bagasse can be made nanopore-activated carbon in the form of powder and tablet,
which is effective as adsorbent of Cr (VI) in heavy metal waste pollution. The production in this study
started from drying using sunlight, crushing sugarcane bagasse into powder, carbonizing the powder at 3000
C, activating it using HCL5N, sieving with 200 mesh and sonicating in 15 minutes with 40% amplitude.
After accomplishing those steps, nanopore powder was obtained and then pressed into a tablet. Absorption
capacity testing of Cr (VI) heavy metal was performed with an artificial sample using K2Cr2O7 solution.
Sugarcane bagasse nanopore powder was tested for its contact time by adding 0.1 gram of nanopore powder
into the sample solution, leaving the sample for a while, and analyzing the sample using spectrophotometry.
The results show that the optimum contact time of nanopore powder was six hours to reduce 91.80% of Cr
(VI) level and the optimum contact time of the tablet was five hours to remove 56.35% of Cr (VI). Testing
on a fixed variable of 105 rpm stirring speed and various contact times produced an optimum result with
90 minutes stirring duration and adsorption capacity of 91.80% for removing Cr (VI). Examination on
fixed variable of stirring time and independent variable of stirring speed resulted in an optimum adsorption
capacity of 90.07% in Cr (VI) removal, with 105 rpm stirring speed. This study concludes that powder had
a greater adsorption capacity than a tablet, while the tablet was more practical for usage.