Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 5(11): 1149-1155, 2011 ISSN 1991-8178 Corresponding Author: Ekpete, O.A, M. Horsfall Jnr and A.I. Spiff, Department of Chemistry, Rivers State University of Education, Port Harcourt P.M.B 5047 Port Harcourt, NIGERIA Tal: +234-8038433325; E-mail oekpete @ yahoo.com. 1149 Fixed Bed Adsorption Of Chlorophenol On To Fluted Pumpkin And Commercial Activated Carbon 1 Ekpete, O.A, 2 M. Horsfall Jnr and A.I. Spiff 1 Department of Chemistry, Rivers State University of Education, Port Harcourt P.M.B 5047 Port Harcourt, NIGERIA. 2 Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, University of Port Harcourt, Uniport P. O. Box 402, Choba, Port Harcourt, NIGERIA. Abstract: The removal efficiency of chlorophenol by fluted pumpkin stem waste was compared to a commercial activated carbon. Experiments were conducted on fixed bed columns as a function of flow rate (2-4ml/min), initial concentration (100-200mg/l) and bed height (3-9cm). The total sorbed quantities, equilibrium uptakes and total removal percents of chlorophenol were determined by evaluating the breakthrough curves obtained at different flow rate, different initial concentrations and bed heights. Column bed capacity and exhaustion time increased with increasing bed height. When the initial chlorophenol concentration increased from 100-200mg/l, the corresponding adsorption bed capacity increased from 8.12 to 15.52mg/g for commercial activated carbon and 8.47 to 14.12 mg/g for fluted pumpkin activated carbon. As the flow rate was increased from 2ml/min – 4ml/min, The corresponding bed capacity decreased from 21.2 to 13.56mg/g on FPAC and 21.88to 12.00mg/g on CAC. The results show that columns performed well at lowest flow rate of 2ml/min. The equipment used in this analysis is UV/Visible spectrometry. The experimental data were correlated using the bed depth service time (BDST) model. The critical bed depth increased with increasing chlorophenol concentrations. These results correlated well with the observed performance in the breakthrough curves. An increase in chlorophenol concentration increased the rate constant (K a ) of chlorophenol 0.018, 0.029, 0.109 on FPAC and chlorophenol, 0.022, 0.034 and 0.089on CAC Lmg -1 hr -1 respectively. The fluted pumpkin activated carbon compared favourably to the commercial activated carbon for chlorophenol removal in fixed bed column analysis. Keywords: Fixed –bed adsorption: Fluted pumpkin stem waste; chlorophenol, commercial activated carbon. INTRODUCTION 2-chlorophenol or ortho-chlorophenol is a derivative of phenol. It is used as a disinfectant and pesticide. 2- chlorphenol is a liquid at room temperature, but all other chlorophenols are solids. 2-chlorophenol is used as bactericides, fungicides and preservatives. The water solubility of chlorophenols is low, in the presence of chlorine in drinking water, phenols form chlorophenol, which has a medicinal taste that is quite pronounced, and objectionable (Mahvi, A., et al., 2004; Duarte- Davidson, R., 2004; Denzeli, A., 2005). Chlorine substitution on phenols does not only increase water taste and odour, but also its toxicity effects (Mostafa, M., et al., 1989; Rengaraj, S., 2002; Srivastava, V., 2006). Residues of chlorophenol have been found worldwide in soil water and air sample, in food products, in human and animal tissues and body fluids. Due to their slow degradation, chlorophenol represent a major threat to ecosystems (Denzeli, A., et al., 2004; Sofia, A., et al., 2005). Chronic toxic effects due to phenolic compounds reported in humans include vomiting, difficulty in swallowing, anorexia, liver and kidney damage, headache, fainting and other mental disturbance. Among the different organic pollutions of aquatic ecosystems, phenols, especially the chlorinated ones, are toxic to animals and human even at low concentration (Asheh, S., et al., 2003). Adsorption has gained increasing popularity in recent years as a unit operation for removing pollutants from effluents because the process produces a high quality treated effluent which can meet stringent environmental emission standards. In the search for potential low-cost sorbents for pollutant attenuation in aqueous medium, a number of materials have been investigated for their ability for pollutant attenuation. Some of these sorbets are Cassava waste biomass (Horsfall, M., et al., 2010), Orange peel waste (Ekpete, et al., 2010a), Mangifera indica waste (Ekpete, O., et al., 2010b), and Water spinach (Tarawou, T., et al., 2010). Although batch systems produce interesting information in the form of isotherms, adsorption columns, simulate commercial and industrial adsorbers and real world environmental solutions. The advantages of a fixed bed system include little operator attention, easy inspection and cleaning for regeneration of adsorbent, and fewer instances of adsorbent