Populus Tree Wood: A Noble Bioresource from Western Himalayas for the Development of Various Carbon Types for the Effective Application in Environment Protection i.e., Phenol Adsorption from Wastewater Kumar RD, Kannan GK and Kadirvelu K * Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India * Corresponding author: Kadirvelu K, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, Tel: 0422-2428156; E-mail: kadirvelukrishna@yahoo.com Rec date: September 22, 2017; Acc date: October 26, 2017; Pub date: October 30, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Kadirvelu K, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Populus tree is one of the extensively available Bioresource in the foothills of Western Himalayas. Apart from its multifarious utilities, the activated carbon from the poplar wood has also been finding its enormous use in combating environmental contaminants. Waste aqueous effluents containing various hazardous chemicals, heavy metals and dyes etc. cause serious environmental problems which ultimately affect both flora and fauna adversely. Activated carbon (AC) is being widely used adsorbent for the removal of organic pollutants. The poplar wood carbon (PWC) when chemically activated with NaOH, HCl, HNO 3 , H 3 PO 4 , H 2 SO 4 , CH 3 COOH and ZnCl 2 caused significant increase in surface area and pore size development. All the chemically activated carbons (CACs) were subjected to extensive physiochemical studies like SEM, XRD, FTIR, EDAX and surface area etc. Among all the carbons, the SEM and surface area analysis of H 2 SO 4 activated carbon showed the maximum pore size of 7.1 µm and leading surface area of 1045 m 2 /g. These carbons are acidic with their pH zpc in the range of 3.6 to 4.1. The carbon is amorphous in nature as it is showing three typical broad peaks around 26.5, 44.4 and 80° in all the samples. Among the bulk density of these carbons, ZnCl 2 and H 2 SO 4 activated carbons have maximum of 428 and 427 kg/m 3 respectively. The utilization of these carbons in environmental protection has been studied by carrying out adsorption studies for the removal of phenol. Direct proportion of phenol adsorption to the adsorbent concentration was well established. Effect of contact time on adsorption of phenol using 0.5 gm of adsorbent with 25 ml of 1000 ppm adsorbate showed 100% removal of phenol and the equilibrium was attained in almost an hour. Preliminary studies using poplar wood carbon for the elimination of highly hazardous contaminants has been carried out and the results have been very encouraging. Keywords: Bioresource; Poplar wood carbon; Activated carbon; Chemically activated carbon (CAC); Environment protection Introduction India has been fascinating the entire world especially the scientifc community due to her lush green and diverse fora. Himachal Pradesh a western Himalayan state of India, is one of the mega biodiversity centers of the world with all kinds of plants ranging from herbs to colossal trees. Te altitude of this hilly state ranges from 350 meters to 6975 meters above mean sea level which make it the home for all kind of fora and fauna. Due to its mountainous geography, a variety of broad leafed species constitutes its forest. Te Poplar is one such tree which fnds its agricultural estate in abundance in Himachal. Te tree is used not only as fodder, fuel and furniture etc., but has also been widely cultivated to combat soil erosion, deforestation and other environmental hazards. Te global reported area of planted poplar was 6.7 million ha, of which 3.8 million ha (56%) were planted primarily for wood production and 2.9 million ha for environmental purposes [1]. Poplar agro forestry can now be found in many states in India. Tese include Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh [2]. Due to rapid Industrial growth and technological developments across the globe, there is nonstop quality degradation of both air and water. Along with it, even constant use of agricultural insecticides, pesticides and heavy metals is also proving to be a major contributor towards water pollution. Tese pollutants along with Industrial efuents are persistently posing threat to whole biodiversity on the planet earth. As the problem is infuriating day by day, various techniques and technologies are being developed to combat the problem. Among various techniques, adsorption is a very popular and widely used technique. Tis is due to its cost-efectiveness that this technique is fnding its vast application in controlling the environmental hazards. Activated carbon is a tasteless, solid, microcrystalline, non-graphitic form of a black carbonaceous material with a porous structure [3-4]. Activated carbon has been regarded as only one of its kind, fexible and versatile adsorbent due to its salient and unique characteristics like large surface area, micro porous structure, high adsorption capacity and degree of reactivity [5-7]. Tere are many agricultural by- products which are considered as waste matter. Tese agricultural waste materials pose numerous disposal problems. But, an economic and green technology latent in these waste materials has been brought to the fore by the scientifc world and this material is no more a waste material but is an eco-friendly as well as economic resource in controlling environmental pollutants. Tis requires only transformation of this agricultural waste material into activated carbon. Such agricultural waste material can be obtained from diferent agricultural and horticultural crops. For example, activated carbon can be obtained from various raw materials like Eucalyptus wood [8], bamboo [9], wood fberboard waste [10], sugar cane bagasse [11], cotton stalks [12], Casuarina [13] and Pine tree [14] etc. J o u r n a l o f B i o r e m e d i a ti o n & B i o d e g r a d a t i o n ISSN: 2155-6199 Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation Kumar et al., J Bioremediat Biodegrad 2017, 8:6 DOI: 10.4172/2155-6199.1000415 Research Article Open Access J Bioremediat Biodegrad, an open access journal ISSN: 2155-6199 Volume 8 • Issue 6 • 1000415