Removal of Methylene Blue Dye by Using Eggshell Powder

Abstract

Dyes contain carcinogenic materials which can cause serious hazards to aquatic life and the users of water. Textile industry is the main source of dye wastewater which results in environmental pollution. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the use of low cost adsorbent as an alternative technique for the adsorption of dye. The objective of this study is to determine the potential of eggshell powder as an adsorbent for methylene blue removal and find out the best operating conditions for the color adsorption at laboratory scale. The adsorption of cationic methylene blue from aqueous solution onto the eggshell powder was carried out by varying the operating parameters which were contact time, pH, dosage of eggshell powder and temperature in order to study their effect in adsorption capacity of eggshell powder. The results obtained showed that the best operating condition for removal of methylene blue was at pH 10 (78.98 %) and temperature 50°C (47.37 %) by using 2 g of eggshell powder (57.03 %) with 30 minutes equilibrium time (41.36 %). The kinetic studies indicated that pseudo-second-order model best described the adsorption process. © 2013 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved.