Background and Objectives: Phenols in trace quantities are usually present in the treated effluent of many wastewater-treatment plants. Phenol compounds even at low concentration can cause toxicity, health and significant taste and odor problem in drinking waters. This research focuses on understanding the sorption process and developing a cost-effective technology for the treatment of water contaminated with phenolic compounds, which are discharged into the aquatic environment from a variety of sources. In order to remove phenolic compounds from water, a new natural sorbent, rice husk ash, was developed.
Materials and Methods: Removal of phenol, 2-chlorophenol and 4-chlorophenol were characterized by spectrophotometric technique at wavelengths of 269.5, 274 and 280 nm, respectively, under batch equilibrium conditions and via changing the parameters of contact time, initial pH, and initial concentration of adsorbates and dosages of sorbent. Finally, the results were analyzed by the kinetic and isotherm models.
Results: in this study, the equilibrium time was found to be 240 min for full equilibration of adsorbates. Removal percent of 2-chlorophenol was lower than two others. The maximum removal of phenol, 2-CP and 4-CP was observed at an initial pH of 5. The percentage removal of these phenolic compounds increased with increasing adsorbent dose and decreasing initial concentration. In kinetics studies, correlation coefficient and ARE factor showed that the sorption of phenol (R2=0.9999), 2-chlorophenol (R₂=0.9992) and 4-chlorophenol (R₂=1) fitted by pseudo second order model. Isotherm studies also revealed that, Langmuirmodel for phenol (R₂=0.9499), Freundlich model for 2-chlorophenol (R₂=0.9659) and 4-chlorophenol (R₂=0.9542) were the best choices to describe the sorption behaviors.
Conclusion: Sorption process is highly dependent on the pH and it affects adsorbent surface characteristics, the degree of ionization and removal efficiency. At high pH hydroxide ions (OH-) compete for adsorption sites with phenol molecules. The sorption was done rapidly and a plateau  was reached indicating the sorption sites occuupied till  they were saturated. Since the increasing sorbent dose would improve sorption site, its increasing enhances phenolic compounds removal.