Sean Thomas Keane
Chemical engineering
Hometown: Lake Villa, IL, United States
Graduation date: Spring 2020
FURI | Spring 2019
Adsorption of Copper from Waste Water Using Algae Derived Activated Carbon
The objective of this research is to identify and optimize the process condition for converting microalgae into porous carbon adsorbent for wastewater treatment. The properties of the porous carbons will be quantified by the adsorption of copper ions in wastewater. The specific goal of this project is to maximize the adsorption capacity of the copper ions in water on the algae-derived porous carbon by optimizing the activation and adsorption process. The low cost nature of algae makes it an ideal candidate for a precursor to activated carbon. Future work include investigating the process conditions for promoting more effective copper adsorption (pH, contact time, temperature).
Mentor: Shuguang Deng