Response Surface Methodology Approach for the Adsorption of Bisphenol A (BPA) with Activated Carbon from Bovine Horns

In this work, activated carbon was prepared from Bovine horns and was characterized using FTIR and SEM. The prepared activated carbon was used to adsorb Bisphenol A from simulated solutions. The design of the Experiment was carried out using Box Behnken Design (BBD) and the adsorption experiment was carried out as arranged in a design matrix obtained from Design-Expert software. The factors considered were pH, adsorbent dose, contact time and initial concentration. The percentage removal of BPA was taken as the response of the design. The factor levels which was responsible for the highest removal of BPA from the experimental solutions were the initial concentration of 20mg/L, adsorbent dosage of 0.07g, contact time of 20 minutes and pH 5. A model was predicted by the design expert software and optimization solutions were pulled out from the design expert software with conditions that could give maximum adsorption. A plot of predicted against actual values was gotten too and from the R 2 value of 0.8824, less variation between the predicted percentage removal and actual percentage removal was confirmed. Revealing that the predicted values agree reasonably with the experimental values.  Activated carbon from bovine horn has demonstrated to be effective in BPA adsorption from solution.