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The need for light intensity has made dye degradation very costly for industry. In this work, Fenton reagent was used for the efficient degradation of an aqueous solution of dye without the need for a light source. The influences of the pH of the media, the initial concentrations of Fe 2+ , H 2 O 2 , and methylene blue (MB) dye; in addition to temperature on the oxidation of MB dye were studied. The optimum amounts of the Fenton reagent were 4mM of Fe 2+ and 70mM of H 2 O 2 at 20 mg/L of dye. The optimum ratio of 0.05 of Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 was found to give the best result for the decolorization of dye. The Fenton process was effective at pH 3 with a maximum dye decolorization efficiency of 98.8% within 30 min of reaction, corresponding to a COD removal of 85%. The decolorization process was thermodynamically feasible, spontaneous, and endothermic. The activation energy (E a ) was 33.6 kJ/mol suggesting that the degradation reaction proceeded with a low energy barrier.

Polluted water may contain more than one dye species. Consequently, the behavior of a particular dye in a water system may be affected by the presence of the others. In this study, the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) in single dye system (SDS) and in ternary dye system (TDS) comprising of MB, congo red and methyl orange onto formaldehyde-treated melon husk (FMH) was investigated as a function of pH, contact time and species concentrations. Surface studies of FMH were investigated by Fourier transform infrared and scanning electron microscopy. The dye species adsorption equilibria were rapidly attained after 60 (SDS) and 90 min (TDS) of contact times. The adsorption kinetics were analyzed using pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order and intraparticle diffusion models and the adsorption data were well described by the pseudo second-order model. The equilibrium adsorption data were interpreted in terms of the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Harkin-Jura and Halsey isotherm models and the goodness of fittings were inspected using linear regression analysis (R 2 ). Our results indicated that the Langmuir model was best fitted, suggesting monolayer adsorption. Thermodynamic study showed that the adsorptions in SDS and TDS on FMH are favourable. The change in entropy (DS°) and heat of adsorption (DH°) of dye species on FMH in TDS were estimated as 82.2 J/ mol K and 17.95 kJ/mol. respectively while in SDS, they were respectively -43.76 J/mol K and -21.84 kJ/mol. The sorption process in both systems was thermodynamically feasible with negative DG°values.

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