REMOVAL OF A CHEMICAL DYE FROM WASTEWATER USING LOW COST AGRO-BASED ADSORBENTS: CONTINUOUS ADSORBERS

Abstract

Natural materials that are readily available in large amounts in nature and easily accessible may be used as low cost additives. The aim of this study is to measure the susceptibility of these locally available materials, conocarpus plant, to improve the quality of wastewater discharged from textile industry. In addition to conocarpuswithout chemically treated, conocarpuschemically treated, carbonized conocarpus and activated carbon were used as adsorbents in order to make a comparison, and to test which one of the four types give the best efficiency for removing dye. The ability of adsorbents to adsorb dye was studied using continuous system; studied parameters were effect of flow rate, bed depth, and initial concentration. The experimental results showed that maximum removal efficiency of conocarpus without chemically treated was found to be 90% after 75 min at flow rate 20 l/h, pH value 3 , bed depth 5cm and initial concentration 40 mg/l. The maximum removal efficiency for conocarpuschemically treated was up to 83.75% after 15 min at flow rate 10 l/h, pH value 3, bed depth 10 cm and initial dye concentration 40 mg/l. The maximum removal efficiency for carbonized conocarpus was up to 99.67% after 15 min at flow rate 10 l/h, pH value 3, bed depth 10 cm and initial dye concentration 40 mg/l. For activated carbon the maximum removal efficiency was found to be 99.75% after 15 min at flow rate 10 l/h, pH value 3, bed depth 10cm and initial dye concentration 40 mg/l.