Experimental data for aluminum removal from aqueous solution by raw and iron-modified granular activated carbon

This dataset deals with the modification of granular activated carbon (GAC) with FeCl3 under basic conditions (pH ≈ 12) for removal of aluminium (Al) from aqueous solution. The structural properties and operational parameters including Al ion concentration (2.15 and 10.3 mg/L), pH solution (2–10), adsorbent dosage (0.1–5 g/L), and contact time (0–10 h) was investigated for raw and modified GAC. This dataset provides information about Al removal by GAC and modified GAC at conditions including: pH = 8, contact time = 6 h, initial Al concentration = 2.15 mg/L. The characterization data of the adsorbents was analysed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) test. The data showed that Freundlich isotherm with and Pseudo second order kinetic model were the best models for describing the Al adsorption reactions. The acquired data indicated that the maximum adsorption capacity of GAC and modified GAC to uptake Al (C0 = 10.3 mg/L) was 3 and 4.37 mg/g respectively.


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This dataset deals with the modification of granular activated carbon (GAC) with FeCl 3 under basic conditions (pH E 12) for removal of aluminium (Al) from aqueous solution. The structural properties and operational parameters including Al ion concentration (2.15 and 10.3 mg/L), pH solution (2-10), adsorbent dosage (0.1-5 g/L), and contact time (0-10 h) was investigated for raw and modified GAC. This dataset provides information about Al removal by GAC and modified GAC at conditions including: pH ¼ 8, contact time ¼ 6 h, initial Al concentration ¼ 2.15 mg/L. The characterization data of the adsorbents was analysed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) test. The data showed that Freundlich isotherm with and Pseudo second order kinetic model were the best models for describing the Al adsorption reactions. The acquired data indicated that the maximum

Data accessibility
The data presented in this article is not published anywhere else.

Value of the data
The data are beneficial for determination of the isotherm and kinetic for predicting and modelling the adsorption capacity and mechanism of Al removal by the iron-modified GAC.
These data show the efficacy of modified GAC in comparison to raw GAC on Al removal. The dataset will be useful for Al removal from aqueous solution.

Data
Presented data in this article comprise the characterization of raw and modified GAC (in this paper modified GAC under basic condition nominated as BGAC) with analytical methods like FTIR, SEM, BET and iron content, as well as experimental data including studying different variables (pH, contact time, Al concentration and adsorbent dosage), isotherm and kinetic. One of the best available technologies for pollutants removal from aqueous solutions is adsorption which has a very good efficiency [1,2]. Table 1 shows the iron content, BET surface area and other related data about the raw and modified GAC. Figs. 1-3 show the data for SEM and FTIR for raw and modified GAC and Fig. 4 represents the experimental procedures. Kinetics and Isotherms equations presented in Tables 2 and  3 and Kinetics data for Al adsorbed onto raw and modified GAC was presented in Table 4. Figs. 5-8 show the removal of Al with raw and modified GAC by different parameters. Figs. 9 and 10 shows the adsorption isotherm for Al removal with raw and modified GAC (BGAC).

Experimental design, materials and methods
In this work the removal of Al from water was carried out by raw GAC (supplied by the Merck Company) and modified GAC by FeCl 3 under basic pH condition (BGAC). Some wastewater like spent filter backwash water from water treatment plant was discharged to surface or groundwater without any treatment and it was endangered soil, water body and environment [3][4][5][6][7][8]. So it was necessary for all water treatment plants that treat their wastewater before entering to environment.

Materials
Analytical grade ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ·6H 2 O), GAC, sulfuric acid, nitric acid and sodium hydroxide were purchased from Merck Company. Also, AlK(SO4)2·12H 2 O was used for aluminium stock solution.      2.5% of Fe 3 þ and pH was adjusted to12 by the addition of 1 N NaOH solution. The impregnation of Fe was carried out at 80°C for 24 h on shaker with 150 rpm rotation [9]. Impregnated GAC was Table 2 Kinetic equations and linear forms used in this work.

Kinetic Equation Linear form
Pseudo first order Table 3 Isotherms equations and linear forms used in this work.

Type of isotherm Equation Linear form
Freundlich  calcined at 300°C under a N 2 atmosphere for 3 h. Then it was washed with distilled water for several times and dried at 110°C during 24 h [10].   filtered through Whatman paper (0.45 µm) and the concentration of the residual Al was determined by DR-5000. Percentage removal of Al and adsorption capacity of adsorbent at time t (qt) were calculated as Eqs. (1) and (2):

Adsorption experiments
where C 0 and C e (mg/L) are the initial and equilibrium solute concentrations, respectively.
where C 0 and C e (mg/L) are the initial and final concentration of Al at time t in the solutions, respectively. M (g) is the amount of the adsorbent used and V (L) the volume of Al solution.
To obtain dataset for adsorption equilibrium isotherms, two initial concentrations of Al (2.15 and 10.3 mg/L) and several doses of adsorbents (0.1, 0.5, 2 and 5 g/L) were used at optimum pH (8) and contact time (6 h).