Kinetics of Adsorptive Removal of Drimarene Brilliant Red from Aqueous Solution Using Untreated Agricultural Residues

  • Ch. Tahir Mehmood Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Sector H-12, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan
  • Muhammad Arshad Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (IESE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Sector H-12, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan
  • Tayyab Ashfaq Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, University Road, Abbottabad-22060, Pakistan
  • Muhammad Bilal Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, University Road, Abbottabad-22060, Pakistan
  • Muhammad Shafiq Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, University Road, Abbottabad-22060, Pakistan
  • Kiran Hina Department of Environmental Sciences, Hafiz Hayat Campus, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, 54000, Pakistan
Keywords: adsorption, drimarene brilliant red, banana peels, orange peels, rice husk

Abstract

The potential of untreated banana and orange peels, and rice husk was tested for drimarene
brilliant red (DBR) dye removal from aqueous solution. Kinetics was also studied in a batch experiment.
Dose of adsorbents varied from 6 to 12 g/L, particle sizes 0.2 and 0.8 mm and contact time 232 h. High
dose and small particle size favoured DBR removal efficiency significantly. The highest adsorption capacity
was shown by rice husk (10 mg/g), then orange peels (9 mg/g) and the lowest by banana peels (4 mg/g).
Langmuir isotherm (R2=0.99) and pseudo-second order model (R2=0.99) depicted well the equilibrium
and best explained the kinetics for rice husk, respectively. Initial adsorption appeared as pore diffusion
in all the cases and film diffusion was controlling the rate, later on. Based upon the analytical data, a simple
model has been presented that fitted best to describe rice husk adsorption kinetics.

Published
2016-02-26