Al-Khwarizmi 

Engineering   

Journal 
Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal,Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44 (2016) 

 

  

Using Activated Carbon developed from Iraqi Date Palm Seeds as 

Permeable Reactive Barrier for Remediation of Groundwater 

Contaminated with Copper 
 

Ziad T. Abd Ali 
Department of Environmental Engineering / College of Engineering/ University of Baghdad  

E-mail: z.teach2000@yahoo.com 

 
 (Received 6 September  2015; accepted 10 January 2016)  

 

 

Abstract 

 
     The possibility of using activated carbon developed from date palm seeds wastes as a permeable reactive barrier 

(PRB) to remove copper from polluted shallow groundwater was investigated. The activated carbon has been developed 

from date palm seeds by dehydrating methods using concentrated sulfuric acid. Batch tests were performed to 

characterize the equilibrium sorption properties of new activated carbon in copper-containing aqueous solutions, while 
the sandy soil (aquifer) was assumed to be inert. Under the studied conditions, the Langmuir isotherm model gives a 

better fit for the sorption data of copper by activated carbon than other models. At a pilot scale, One-dimensional column 

experiments were performed, and an integrated model based on the solution of an advection-reaction-dispersion mass 

balance equation, using COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a software which is based on finite element method, was developed to 

study the space and time concentration of copper within groundwater. Experimental and numerical results proved that the 

PRB represents a potential role in the restriction of the copper plume migration. Also, these results showed that the 

greater thickness of PRB results in a better treatment of copper and that the barrier starts to saturate with contaminant as a 

function of the travel time. However, a good agreement between the predicted (theoretical) and experimental results with 

RMSE not exceeded the 0.08 proved these methods are effective and efficient tools in description of copper transport 

phenomena adopted here. 

 

Keywords: date palm seeds, activated carbon, Copper, Permeable reactive barrier, Groundwater, Transport.    

 

1. Introduction 
 
The pollution of groundwater by pollutants has 

been considered since the industrial revolution 
[1]. Copper, as well as other heavy metals, is 

released into the environment in a number of 

different ways and it finds the way to get into the 

water-streams and groundwater thus make 
environmental pollution that presents threat to 

plants, animals, and humans, therefore serious of 

complex problems can be happen [2]. 
"Groundwater, which is water found beneath the 

surface of the ground and seeped down from the 

surface by migrating through the soil matrix and 
spaces in geologic formations, is generally more 

reliable for use than surface water" [3]. 

Historically, the pump-and-treat technique was the 

most common technology used for remediation of 

groundwater. This technique is costly, difficult, 

and ineffective most of the time in removing 
enough pollution to restore the groundwater to 

drinking water standards in acceptable time 

frames. The inability to extract pollutants from the 

subsurface due to hydrogeologic factors and 
trapped residual contaminant mass was the 

primary reason for the failure of pump and treat. 

Accordingly, the other method used to remediate 
groundwater contaminated with different types of 

contaminants was permeable reactive barrier 

(PRB) technology. It is found to be more cost-

effective than pump and treat and has 
demonstrated the potential to diminish the spread 

of contaminants [4].  "Activated carbon has 

versatility and wide range of applications and it 
has been proven to be an effective adsorbent for 

the removal of a wide variety of organic and 



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

35 
 

inorganic pollutants from different media. 
Therefore, production of low-cost activated 

carbon becomes the aim of many researchers 

since the commercial activated carbon is still very 
expensive" [5]. The worthy aspects of this study 

are the development of new activated carbon from 

date palm seeds as an inexpensive and efficient 

reactive material and the ability of using of this 
material in PRBs for the removal of copper from 

polluted groundwater. 

 

 

2. Description of Sorption Data 
 

   For the description of sorption data five 
isotherm models were used. A summary of these 

models was presented by "Hamdaoui and 

Naffrechoux" [6] as follows: 

 The Langmuir model can be expressed as in 
equation (1): 

 𝑞𝑒 =
𝑞𝑚  𝑏𝐶𝑒

1+𝑏𝐶𝑒
                                                    …(1) 

where qm  is the maximum adsorption capacity 

(mg/g), b (L/mg) is the constant related to the free 

energy     of adsorption, Ce (mg/l) is the 
equilibrium concentration of the solute in the bulk 

solution, and qe (mg/g) is the amount of solute 

adsorbed per unit weight of adsorbent at 
equilibrium.  

 The Freundlich model is given by equation (2): 

  𝑞𝑒 = 𝐾𝐹𝐶𝑒
1
𝑛                                                  …(2) 

where n is an empirical coefficient indicative of 

the intensity of the adsorption and KF is the 

Freundlich sorption coefficient. 

 The Elovich model is based on a kinetic 
principle assuming that the adsorption process 

increase with sites of adsorption. It can be 

written as in equation (3): 

   
𝑞𝑒

𝑞𝑚
= 𝐾𝐸𝐶𝑒 exp⁡ −

𝑞𝑒

𝑞𝑚
                                 …(3) 

where KE is the Elovich equilibrium constant 

(L/mg), and qm is the Elovich maximum 

adsorption capacity (mg/g)  

 The Temkin model assumes that with coverage 
the heat of adsorption of all the molecules in 

the layer decreases linearly because of the 

interactions of adsorbent–adsorbate. This 

model is represented by equation (4): 

  𝜃 =
𝑅𝑇

∆𝑄
𝑙𝑛𝐾𝑜𝐶𝑒                                                ...(4) 

where Ko is the Temkin equilibrium constant 

(L/mg), ∆Q is the variation of adsorption energy 
(kJ mol

−1
), T  is the temperature (K), R is the 

universal gas constant (kJ mol
−1

 K
−1

), and θ 

(=qe/qm) is the fractional coverage. 

 The Kiselev model can be written as in 
equation (5): 

   𝑘1𝐶𝑒 =
𝜃

 1−𝜃  1+𝑘𝑛 𝜃 
                                    …(5) 

where k1 is the Kiselev equilibrium constant 
(L/mg), θ (=qe/qm)  is the fractional coverage, and 

kn is the constant of complex formation between 

adsorbed molecules. 

 

 

3. Experimental Work 
 

3.1. Materials 
 

Iraqi date seeds were used to prepare the 

activated carbon; it washed with hot distilled 

water to remove the dust and other foreign 
materials, dried in oven at 200◦C for 24 h. "The 

dried seeds were milled, sieved to the particle size 

of 1–0.6 mm and stored in airtight container for 
carbonization. 2 kg of dried date palm seeds were 

added in small portion to H2SO4 (98%, 2 L) 

during 5 h followed by boiling for 20 h in a fume 

hood. Cool in ice bath and the reaction mixture 
was poured onto cold water (5 L) and filtered. The 

obtained carbon was dried in an open oven at 120 

◦C for 24 h followed by immersed in 5% NaHCO3 
(4 L) to remove any remaining acid and then 

filter" [7]. The produced carbon was then washed 

with distilled water until pH of the activated 
carbon reached 6, dried at 105 ◦C for 24 h and 

sieved to the particle size 1-0.6 mm (porosity = 

0.45) and kept in a airtight container until used.  

The sandy soil was used as aquifer in the 
conducted experiments. This soil had a particle 

size distribution ranged from 63 μm to 0.71 mm 

(porosity = 0.41)  with an effective grain size, d10, 
of 110 μm, a median grain size, d50, of 180μm and 

a uniformity coefficient, Cu= d60/d10, of 1.73. 

The salt of Cu(N03)2 (manufactured by BDH, 
England) was used in the preparation of the 

copper stock solution by dissolving it at a known 

concentration in distilled water. The solutions 

used for the study were obtained by dilution of the 
stock solution to the required concentration. The 

initial pH of each of the solutions was adjusted by 

the addition of HNO3 or NaOH solution. The 
initial concentrations of the copper, and the 

corresponding concentrations after fixed the time 

periods, were measured by an atomic adsorption 

spectrophotometer (AAS) (Shimadzu, Japan). 
 

 

 
 

 



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

36 
 

3.2. Batch Experiments  

     
These tests are carried out to specify the best 

conditions of contact time, initial pH of the 

solution, initial copper concentration, dosage of 

activated carbon and agitation speed. Series of 
250 ml flasks are employed and each flask is 

filled with 50 ml of copper solution which has 

initial concentration of 50 mg/L. About 0.5 g/50 

ml of activated carbon was added into different 
flasks and these flasks were kept stirred in the 

high-speed orbital shaker at 200 rpm for 90 min. 

A fixed volume (20 ml) of the solution was 
withdrawn from each flask. This withdrawn 

solution was filtered to separate the activated 

carbon and a fixed volume (10 ml) of the clear 

solution was pipetted out for the concentration 
determination of copper still present in solution. 

The measurements were carried out using atomic 

adsorption spectrophotometer (AAS) (Shimadzu, 
Japan).  However, the adsorbed concentration of 

copper on the activated carbon was obtained by a 

mass balance. Kinetic studies were investigated 
with different values of pH (3, 4, 5, 6 and 7), 

different values of initial concentration of copper 

(50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 mg/L), amounts of 

activated carbon dosage (0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 
0.7, 0.8 and 1 g/50 ml) and finally values of 

agitation speed (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 

rpm). 
From the best experimental results, the amount 

of copper retained in the activated carbon phase, 

qe, was calculated using equation (6) [8]:                           

𝑞𝑒 =  𝐶𝑜 − 𝐶𝑒 
𝑉

𝑚
                                           …(6)                            

where Co and Ce are the initial and equilibrium 

concentrations of copper in the solution (mg/L), V 

is the volume of solution in the flask (L), and m is 

the mass of adsorbent material (activated carbon) 
in the flask (g).  

 

 

3.3. Continuous Experiments 
      

The reactor setup used in the present study was 
constructed of Perspex column having height and 

diameter equal to 50 and 5 cm, respectively. This 

reactor was schematically shown in   Fig.1. The 
column is equipped with four sampling ports at a 

distance of 10 cm (port 1), 20 cm (port 2), 25 cm  

(port 3), 35 cm (port 4), from the bottom. These 

ports along the length of the column were 
assembled of stainless steel fittings which blocked 

with Viton stoppers (DOIT, Dongguan Doit 

Rubber Products, Guangdong, China). Sampling 
was carried out at a specified periods using a 

syringe which was inserted into the center axis of 
the column. The column was packed with sandy 

soil as aquifer and activated carbon developed 

from date palm seeds wastes (reactive media) as 
barrier in the configuration and alignment 

illustrated in Fig. 1. This column was then filled 

with distilled water that was fed slowly into the 

bottom of the column and forced upward through 
the medium in order to expel the air from the 

medium (soil and activated carbon). The 

contaminated solution with copper, which 
simulated the contaminated groundwater, was 

introduced into the column from storage tank 

controlled by gravity (constant head flow), flow-

meter and two valves. 
    Two values of flow rate (7 and 17 mL/min) 

were selected for the column test experiments. 

The selection of these values was to satisfy the 
laminar flow, i.e., Reynolds number      (R) < 1 − 

10 [9], which is the predominant situation for 

groundwater flow in the porous medium. 
Monitoring of copper concentration along the 

length of the column in the effluent from sampling 

ports was conducted for a period of 7 days, then 

samples of water were taken regularly (after 1, 2, 
4, and 7 days) from these ports and immediately 
introduced in glass vials and then analyzed by 

atomic adsorption spectrophotometer. The filling 
material in the column was assumed to be 

homogeneous and incompressible, and constant 

over time for water-filled porosity. The 
volumetric water discharge through the column 

cross section was constant over time and set as the 

experimental values. The copper inlet 

concentration was set constant. All tubing and 
fittings for the influent and effluent lines should 

be composed of an inert material. A solution of 1 

g/L NaCl in deionized water as a tracer was 
continuously fed into the column at four values of 

flow rate (5, 10, 15, and 20 mL/min) for a tracer 

experiment, adopting the same method of Ujfaludi 

[10],  to determine the longitudinal dispersion 
coefficient (DL) for the reactive medium (activated 

carbon) and sandy soil (aquifer). 

 

 

4. Results and Discussion 
 

4.1. Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis 
      

The Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy 

(FTIR) analysis has been considered as a kind of 
direct mean for identifying the characteristic 

functional groups on the surface of the activated 

carbon, which are responsible for copper binding 

[11]. The FTIR spectrums of activated carbon 



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

37 
 

samples after and before copper sorption were 
examined using a Shimadzu FTIR, 8000 series 

spectrophotometer. The displacement in the 

infrared frequencies support that carboxylic acid, 
Alcohols, and Sulfonates are the functional groups 

causing the sorption of copper onto activated 

carbon as shown in  Fig. 2, Table 1,[12]. 
Accordingly, the mechanisms that controlled the 

sorption of copper by using activated carbon may 

be the adsorption process supported by the 
presence of the functional groups described 

previously. 

 

 
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of column test. 

 

 

Fig. 2. FTIR spectrum of activated carbon (a) before and (b) after, loaded of Cu (II) 

 
Table 1, 

 Functional groups responsible for copper sorption onto activated carbon. 

Wave No. (cm
-1

) Type of bond Functional group 
Displacement 

after sorption 

3375.43 O-H Carboxylic acid 19.29 

1743.65 C=O Carboxylic acid 3.86 

1192.01 C-O Carboxylic acid 65.58 

1087.85 C-O-C Alcohols 11.58 

968.27 S-O Sulfonates 7.72 

 

 

 

(a) 

(b

) 

 



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

38 
 

4.2. Influence of Batch Operating 
Parameters 
 

4.2.1. Effect of Contact Time and Initial pH 
of Solution 

 
The effect of initial pH of the solution and the 

contact time on copper sorption is illustrated in 
Fig. 3, where 0.5 g of activated carbon was added 

to a 50 ml of Cu(II) solution at 25 ºC. As the Fig.3 

shows, at the beginning, the increasing rate of 
adsorption was fast as the contact time increased 

till reaching the equilibrium time   (60 min). This 

could be the result of the availability of many 

adsorbent sites for the Cu(II) adsorption. The 
adsorption rate was reduced because of the 

decreasing of the remaining vacant surfaces as 

result of formation of replusive forces between the 
Cu(II) on the solid surfaces and in the liquid phase 

[13]. As well as the reduction in the competition 

between Cu(II) and proton for the surface sites 
causes the increase in the removal of copper on 

increasing pH, this results in a reduce in columbic 

repulsion of the sorbing copper. However, the 

removal efficiency was decreased on increasing 
the pH value. Fig.3 shows that at a pH of 6 the 

removal efficiency of Cu(II) was at its maximum 

value.  

 

 
 

Fig. 3. Removal efficiency of copper on activated 

carbon as a function of contact time and initial pH 

 

 

4.2.2. Effect of Activated Carbon Dosage 

      
The effect of activated carbon dosage on the 

removal efficiency of the copper   was examined 
at different dosages of activated carbon. These 

dosages were ranging from 0.2 to 1 g and added to 

50 mL of copper solution as present in Fig.4.This 

figure showed that the increasing of  the activated 
carbon dosage from 0.2 to 0.6 g at fixed initial 

copper concentration will lead to improve the 

removal efficiency, this was because of a higher 
dosage of activated carbon in the solution leads to 

greater availability of sorption sites, it's also clear 

that after a dosage of activated carbon   (0.6 g/50 
mL), the maximum adsorption sets in; hence, even 

with further addition of activated carbon, the 

amount of copper bond to the  activated carbon 

and its amount in solution remain constant.   
     

 

Fig. 4. Effect of activated carbon dosage onremoval 

efficiencies of Cu(II) 

 

 

4.2.3. Effect of Initial copper 
Concentration 

 
Fig. 5 presents the effect of Initial 

Concentration of copper on its removal efficiency. 
Its shows that when increasing the initial 

concentration of copper from 50 to 90 mg/L, the 

removal efficiency reduces from 96 to 74.4%, this 
represents the saturation of the active sites 

available on the activated carbon to interact with 

pollutant, so with increasing concentration the less 
favorable sites became involved in the 

process[14]. 

 

 
 

Fig. 5. Effect of initial copper concentration on 
removal efficiency of copper on activated carbon 

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

R
e
m

o
v

a
l 

e
ff

ic
ie

n
c
y

  
%

Time (min)

Co=50 mg/l, dose=0.5 g/50 ml, 

agitation speed=200 rpm

PH=7

PH=6

pH=5

pH=4

pH=3

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
R

e
m

o
v
a
l 
e
ff

ic
ie

n
c
y
%

Activated carbon (g/50ml)

Co=50 mg/l, pH=6, t=60 min, 

agitation speed=200 rpm

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

40 50 60 70 80 90

R
e
m

o
v
a

l 
e
ff

ic
ie

n
c
y

 %

Co (mg/l)

Dose=0.6 g/50 ml, pH=6, t=60 min,

agitation speed=200 rpm



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

39 
 

4.2.4. Effect of Agitation Speed 

 
Nearly 7% of the copper was removed before 

shaking (agitation speed = 0) and with the 

increase of the rate of shaking, the uptake 

increases, as illustrated in Fig. 6 . On increasing 
agitation speed from 0 to 250 rpm, there is a 

gradual increase in copper uptake, at which about 

all of the copper (100%) is removed. This can be 

due to improving the diffusion of copper towards 
the surface of the reactive medium (activated 

carbon) and more contact between the binding 

sites and the copper in the solution.  
 

 
 

Fig. 6. Effect of agitation speed on removal 

efficiency of copper 

 

 

4.3. Sorption Isotherms 
      

The parameters that give the higher removal 

efficiency of copper at its initial concentration of 

50 mg/L on activated carbon were pH of 6, 
agitation speed of       250 rpm, an equilibrium 

time of 60 min, and activated carbon dosage of 

0.6g/50mL. The results of the sorption experiment 
were fitted with the previously described 

linearized form of five isotherm models. The 

fitted parameters and coefficient of determination 
(R

2
) for each model are illustrated in Table 2. In 

comparison with the other models, the Langmuir 

isotherm model provided the higher correlation 

for copper sorption on activated carbon, therfore 
the Langmuir isotherm model was used to 

describe the copper sorption on these media in the 

partial differential equation (PDE) governing the 
transport of a copper in  one dimension 

continuous mode. Considering the sandy soil 

(aquifer) as a non- reactive medium (inert) is one 

of the main aspects of the present study, so that 
just the adsorbate (copper) and adsorbent 

(activated carbon) are examined in batch 

experiments.  

Table 2 

Parameters of isotherm models for sorption of 

copper onto activated carbon. 

 

Isotherm 

models 

                      

Parameter 

 

Langmuir 

b (L/mg) 4.874 

qm (mg/g) 4.374 

R
2
 0.9986 

Freundlich 

KF (mg/g)(L/mg)
1/n

 3.662 

n 21.32 

R
2
 0.9533 

Elovich 
qm (mg/g) 10.033 
KE (L/mg) 0.3709 

R
2 

0.9497
 

Temkin 

∆Q (KJ/mole) 7.0729 

Ko (L/mg) 1.0007 

R
2 

0.9221
 

Kiselev 

k1 (L/mg) 0.5431 

kn -0.8201 

R
2
 0.9242 

 

 

4.4. Longitudinal Dispersion Coefficient 

      
Table 3 presents the results of experimental work 

representing the measurement of longitudinal 
dispersion coefficient (DL) at different values of 

velocity (V) for soil and activated carbon had the 

following linear forms equations (7, and 8) [10]: 
DL = 6.490 V + 0.5325 (R

2
=0.9960)for soil   …(7)   

DL=12.889 V + 0.0325 (R
2
=0.9953)for AC   …(8) 

The longitudinal hydrodynamic dispersion of 
these equations has the general form of coefficient 

as in equation (9) [15]: 

 𝐷𝐿 = 𝛼𝐿𝑉 + 𝜏𝐷𝑜                                            …(9) 
    where Do = molecular diffusion coefficient, and 
τ = tortuosity. As cited by Holzbecher, the τ value 

for theoretical work is equal to the porosity (n) 

[15]. In the present study the molecular diffusion 
coefficient of copper in the water (Do) used was 

9.7 × 10
−6

 cm
2
/s [16].  Therefore the longitudinal 

dispersivity (αL) is                         6.49 and 12.889 

cm for soil and activated carbon, respectively 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 50 100 150 200 250

R
e
m

o
v
a

l 
e
ff

ic
ie

n
c
y

%

Agitation speed (rpm)

Co=50 mg/l, dose=0.6 g/50ml, pH=6, t=60 min



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

40 
 

 

Table 3, 

measured values of the longitudinal dispersion coefficient and dispersivity for used mediums as a function of 

mean pore velocity. 

Flow rate (ml/min) 5 10 15 20 

Sandy Soil 

(aquifer) 

V (cm/s) 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 

Re   0.0179 0.0359 0.0538 0.0718 

DL (cm
2
/s) 0.593 0.670 0.725 0.791 

αL (cm) 6.490 

Activated carbon 

(PRB) 

V (cm/s) 0.009 0.018 0.027 0.036 

Re   0.0696 0.1392 0.2088 0.2784 

DL (cm
2
/s) 0.158 0.250 0.381 0.501 

αL (cm) 12.889 

 
 

 

4.5. Modeling Application 

     
Advection dispersion processes is the cause of 

copper transport in a porous medium, so that the 

one-dimensional system of copper transport in a 
porous media can be represented by the following 

equation (10) [17]:  

 𝐷𝑧
𝜕2𝐶𝐶𝑢

𝜕𝑧2
− 𝑉𝑧

𝜕𝐶𝐶𝑢

𝜕𝑧
=

𝜕𝐶𝐶𝑢

𝜕𝑡
+

𝜌𝑏

𝑛

𝜕𝑞

𝜕𝑡
               …(10) 

where CCu = copper mass concentration in water, 

Vz = velocity of flow,                     Dz = 

longitudinal dispersion coefficient in the z 
direction, CCu = copper mass concentration in 

water, ρb = dry adsorbing material bulk density, 

and q = copper concentration on solid,. 

     , the second term (q) on the right side of 
equation (10) can be changed by the Langmuir 

model equation (1) under isothermal conditions. 

The initial copper concentrations are assumed to 
be zero throughout the entire flow domain and the 

boundary conditions used in COMSOL 

Multiphysics 3.5a are reported in equation (11): 

Lower boundary (at z = 0)∶ CCu = 50 mg/L 
Upper boundary (at z=50 cm): advective flux as in 

equation (11): 
𝜕𝐶𝐶𝑢

𝜕𝑧
= 0                                                        …(11)  

Interior boundaries in the barrier zone (i.e., at 

z=20 and 35 cm): continuity.  

With and without the presence of PRB the 

concentration lines of copper in the aquifer were 

calculated by the COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a  
software at two different values of flow rates (7 

and 14 mL/min) and at different time intervals as 

shown in Fig.7.  This figure shows that the 

propagation of the copper plume was restricted by 
the barrier and this propagation will be increased 

as increasing flow rate. 

The PRB thickness effect varied from 0 to 25 
cm as shown in Fig. 8, where the copper treatment 

in the down gradient of the barrier (z = 35 cm) at a 

rate of flow of 20 mL/min. It is clear that the 
copper treatment will be better with the increment 

of the PRB thickness. This is due to the greater 

retention time of the copper solution that leads to 

better sorption process. However, on increasing 
the travel time, the barrier starts to saturate; so 

that the retardation factor of the copper was 

decreased, this means that the percentage 
functionality of activated carbon for containing 

pollutant was reduced.   

 

 

 

 



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

41 
 

 

     

Fig. 7. Representation of copper concentration along the length of the column with and without presence of 

barrier at two values of flow rate using COMSOL software. 

 
 

 
 

Fig. 8. Concentration of copper versus time of various barrier thickness.

 

 

In addition, to investigate the relation between 

PRB thickness and its longevity,  COMSOL 
Multiphysics 3.5a  was used as valid tool. The 

time required for maintaining the concentration of 

contaminant down gradient of the barrier to less 

than the quality limit prescribed for drinking 

water is the definition of the "longevity". Under 

two different values of flow rate the longevity of 
the barrier increased in a linear trend with 

increasing the thickness of the barrier for copper 

as illustrated in Fig. 9 . 

  

0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0 5 10 15 20 25

C
o

n
c
e
n

tr
a
ti

o
n

 o
f 

c
o

p
p

e
r 

(K
g

/m
3
)

Time (day)

Q=20 ml/min, Z=35 cm

Barrier thickness=0 
cm
Barrier thickness=5 
cm
Barrier 
thickness=10cm



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

42 
 

 
 

Fig. 9.  Relationship between the thicknesses of the 

barrier and its longevity as predicted by COMSOL 

software. 

 

 

Fig. 10 illustrate a comparison between the 
COMSOL solution (theoretical) experimental 

results for copper concentrations during the 

transport the copper plume at two different flow 
rates in a various periods of times along the tested 

column. It's obvious there is nearly an agreement 

between the theoretical and experimental results. 

In addition, to find the degree of agreement 
between these results a statistical tool was used 

(RMSE) [18]. The root-mean squared error values 

don’t exceed 0.08, confirming a good agreement. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Fig. 10. Comparison between experimental results 

and COMSOL solution for copper concentrations  

at two values of flow rate. 

 

 

5. Conclusions 
 

1. The batch results indicated that there are 
several parameters such as Contact time, initial 
pH of the solution; initial copper 

concentration, activated carbon dosage, and 

agitation speed affect the sorption process the 
sorption process between copper and activated 

carbon. The best values of these parameters 

that will achieve the maximum removal 

efficiency of copper (100%) were 60 min, 6, 
50 mg/L, 0.6 g/50 mL, and 250 rpm, 

respectively.  

2. Copper sorption data on activated carbon was 
correlated reasonably well by the Langmuir 

sorption model with coefficient of 

determination (R
2
) of 0.9986. 

3. The Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy 
(FTIR) analysis proved that carboxylic acid, 

Alcohols, and Sulfonates are the functional 

groups responsible for the sorption of copper 
onto activated carbon 

4. The numerical solutions that are solved by 
COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a to describe the 
one dimension equilibrium transport of copper 

along the length of aquifer and PRB proved 

that the activated carbon barrier is an efficient 
technique to restrict the contaminant plume. 

These results showed that the greater thickness 

of PRB results in a better treatment of copper 

and that the barrier starts to saturate with 
contaminant as a function of the travel time. 

However, a good agreement between the 

predicted (theoretical)  and experimental 
results with RMSE not exceeded the 0.08 

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

L
o

n
g

e
v
it

y
 (
d

a
y
)

Thickness of barrier (m)

Q=7  ml/min
Q=14 ml/min

0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0 10 20 30 40 50

C
o

n
c
e
n

tr
a
ti

o
n

 o
f 

c
o

p
p

e
r 

(K
g

/m
3
)

Distance from the bottom of column (cm)

Q=7 ml/min

1 day (COMSOL)

2 day (COMSOL)

4 day (COMSOL)

7 day (COMSOL)

1 day (Experiment)

2 day (Experiment)

4 day (Experiment)

7 day (Experiment)



Ziad T. Abd Ali                                  Al-Khwarizmi Engineering Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, P.P. 34- 44(2016) 

43 
 

proved these methods are effective and 
efficient tools in description of pollutant 

transport phenomena adopted here 

5. Experimental results proved that the activated 
carbon developed from date palm seeds wastes 

was a good choice as an inexpensive and 

efficient reactive material for permeable 

reactive barrier to remove the copper from 
contaminated groundwater 

 

 

6. References 
 

[1] Chung, Y. W., Kim, J., and Kong, S. H. 
(2011). “Performance prediction of 

permeable reactive barriers by three-

dimensional groundwater flow simulation.” 
Int. J. Environ. Sci. Dev., 2(2), 138–141. 

[2] Zhu B., Fan T., Zhang D., (2008) , 
"Adsorption of copper ions from aqueous 
solution by citric acid modified soybean 

straw", Journal of Hazardous Materials 153 

300–308. 
[3] Bear, J. (1979)."Dynamics of fluids in porous 

media" , Elsevier, New York, 763. 

[4] Di Natale F., Di Natale M., Greco R., Lancia 
A., Laudante C., and Musmarra D. (2008). 
“Groundwater protection from cadmium 

contamination by permeable reactive 

barriers.” J. Hazard. Mater., 160(2–3), 428–
434. 

[5] Babel S., Kurniawan T.A., (2003), "Low-cost 
adsorbents for heavy metals uptake from 
contaminated water: a review", J. Hazard. 

Mater. B97 219–243. 

[6] Hamdaou O. i, Naffrechoux E., (2007), 
"Modeling of adsorption isotherms of phenol 
and chlorophenols onto granular activated 

carbon", J. Hazard. Mater. 147 381–394 

[7] Ahmed El Nemr∗ , Azza Khaled, Ola 
Abdelwahab, Amany El-Sikaily, (2008),      

"Treatment of wastewater containing toxic 

chromium using new activated carbon 

developed from date palm seed", Journal of 
Hazardous Materials 152 ,263–275 

[8] Wang, S., Nan, Z., Li, Y., and Zhao, Z. 
(2009). “The chemical bonding of copper 
ions on kaolin from Suzhou, China.” 

Desalination, 249(3), 991–995. 

[9] [9] Delleur, J. (1999). "The handbook of 
groundwater engineering", CRC Press, Boca    
Raton. 

[10] Ujfaludi, L. (1986). “Longitudinal dispersion 
tests in non-uniform porous media.”     
Hydrol. Sci. J., 31(4), 467–474. 

[11] Chen, J. P., Wang, L., and Zou, S. W. (2008). 
“Determination of lead bio-sorption 

properties by experimental and modeling 
simulation study.” Chem. Eng. J., 131(1–3), 

209–215. 

[12] Doke, K. M., Yusufi, M., Joseph, R. D., and 
Khan, E. M. (2012). “Bio-sorption of 

hexavalent chromium onto wood apple shell: 

Equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic 
studies.” Desalin. Water Treat. 50(1–3),   

170–179. 

[13] El-Sayed G.O., Dessouki H.A., Ibrahim S.S., 
(2010) , "Bio-sorption of Ni(II) and Cd(II) 
ions from aqueous solutions onto rice straw", 

Chem. Sci. J. 9, 1–11.  

[14] Qadeer, R., and Rehan, A. H. (2002). “A 
study of the adsorption of phenol by 

activated carbon from aqueous solutions.” 

Turk J. Chem., 26, 357–361. 
[15] Holzbecher, E. (2007)." Environmental 

modeling using MATLAB", Springer, Berlin. 

[16] Quickenden T. I.,  Jiang  X.,(1984)" The 
diffusion coefficient of copper sulphate in 
aqueous solution", Electrochimica ,Vol. 29, 

No. 6, pp.693-700. 

[17] Reddi, L. N., and Inyang, H. I. (2000). "Geo-
environmental engineering principles and 

applications", Marcel Dekker, New York. 

[18] Anderson, M. P., and Woessner, W. W. 
(1992). "Applied groundwater modeling: 
Simulation of flow and advective transport, 

2nd Ed.", Academic Press, San Diego. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 (2016) 34- 44، صفحت 2، العذد12دجلت الخىاسصمي الهىذسيت المجلمصياد طاسق عبذ علي                                                           

44 
 

 

 

استخذام الكاسبىن المىشط المطىس مه بزوس تمش الىخيل العشاقى كجذاس تفاعلى وفار لمعالجت 

 المياي الجىفيً الملىثً بالىحاس
 

 صياد طاسق عبذعلي  
 بغذاد جبيعّ/ كهٛت انُٓذعت/ ة قغى انُٓذعّ انبئٙ

 z.teach2000@yahoo.com :انبشٚذ االنكخشَٔٙ

 

 
 

 ةالخالص

 
حًش انُخٛم كجذاس حفبعهٙ َفبر الصانّ انُحبط يٍ انًٛبِ انجٕفّٛ  بزٔسانخحقق يٍ ايكبَٛت اعخخذاو انكبسبٌٕ انًُشظ انًطٕس يٍ ٚخى فٙ ْزا انبحذ 

عًهٛبث انذفع . ببعخخذاو حبيض انكبشٚخٛك انًشكض( dehydration method) حًش انُخٛم عٍ طشٚق عًهٛت بزٔس انكبسبٌٕ انًُشظ صُع يٍ . انضحهّ

(batch )انُخبئج  .ِحى فشضٓب عهٗ آَب خبيم ةانشيهٙ ةحى اعخخذايٓب الٚجبد خٕاص انخٕاصٌ فٙ عًهٛت ايخضاص انُحبط عهٗ عطح انكبسبٌٕ انًُشظ بًُٛب انخشة

حى اعخخذاو عًٕد ببحجبِ . ببنًقبسَّ ببنًٕدٚالث االخشٖ بُفظ ظشٔف انذساعّ الَكًٛشْٕاالفضم حطببقب نٕصف عًهٛت االيخضاص انًٕدٚمانعًهّٛ اشبسث ببٌ 

َخبئج ال. ٔانخٗ حى حهٓب ببعخخذاو بشَبيج انكٕيغٕل( adv. - disp. equation)نًحبكبة جشٚبٌ انًٛبِ انجٕفّٛ ببحجبِ ٔاحذ يعخًذا عهٗ يعبدنّ ( 1D)ٔاحذ 
ظٓش حٕافق جٛذ  قذحضداد بضٚبدة عًك انحبجض ٔ ةدٔسا يًٓب فٙ اعبقّ انًهٕد ٔكزنك اٌ عًهٛت االصال ٚؤد٘انعذدّٚ ٔانعًهّٛ اربخج اٌ انجذاس انخفبعهٗ انُفبر 

. يببٍٛ َخبئج انكٕيغٕل ٔانعًهٗ