Cationic dye removal by sugarcane bagasse activated carbon from aqueous solution

Abstract

Low cost agricultural waste adsorbents can be viable alternatives to activated carbon for the treatment of contaminated wastewater. Sugarcane Bagasse, an abundant agriculture waste in Egypt, was used in the present study to prepare activated carbon. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to study its effectiveness to remove cationic dye methylene blue from aqueous solution. The effects of initial dye concentrations, agitation time, solution pH and temperature on methylene blue dye removal were investigated. The optimum pH value for the maximum percentage removal of the dye was 7. Adsorption isotherms were determined and modeled with Redlich–Peterson, Langmuir and Freundlich equations at 20 °C. The kinetic data were analyzed using Pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order. The mechanism of the adsorption process was determined from the intraparticle diffusion model. Thermodynamic parameters such as standard enthalpy (ΔH°), standard entropy (ΔS°) and free energy (ΔG°) were determined. The equilibrium data were best fitted to the Redlich–Peterson isotherm model .The adsorption kinetics was found to follow the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with good correlation coefficient. The positive ΔH◦ value indicated that the adsorption process was endothermic in nature. The results revealed sugarcane bagasse activated carbon could be employed as a low-cost alternative adsorbent in wastewater treatment.