Waste peanut hulls, a low-cost and abundantly available material in parts of the world, are
shown to act as an adsorbent for basic dyes. The extent of dye uptake was determined in
standardized batch adsorbers. The effect of process variables such as the initial dye concentration,
the mass of adsorbent, and the agitation speed on uptake during the batch adsorption was
evaluated. Increased initial dye concentration resulted in an increase in the amount of dye
adsorbed per gram of adsorbent for all sorbent/dye combinations.The initial uptake of dye was
found to be more rapid from solutions with lower concentrations. The rate of dye adsorption
increased with increasing adsorbent mass and agitation speed, due to the reduction in the
boundary layer resistance. The applicability of three single resistance mass transfer models
was evaluated. Good model fits were obtained. However the single resistance external mass
transfer failed at longer contact times due to the retardation of the adsorption process by an
internal diffusion process. Results suggest the internal diffusion step could be the rate-limiting
step in the adsorption process and the overall rate of adsorption was controlled by intraparticle
diffusion, adsorption inside the adsorbent surface, or both.
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