A Cost-Efficient Charcoal-Based Adsorbent for Waste Water Treatment and Dye Removal

Abstract

Activated charcoal derived from Moringa oleifera, Manihot esculanta, Carica papaya are efficient for waste water treatment and dye removal. Adsorption techniques are used to remove the non-bio degradable pollutants. The produced carbon was exemplified using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Fourier Infrared spectroscopy. The discoloration rate was higher at an optimum pH of 5 for all three samples and at an adsorbent dosage of 0.02g/100ml of effluent and the equilibrium was obtained in 10 minutes. Thus, the adsorbents have the prospective for realistic applications. Adsorption isotherms was evaluated by the Freundlich, Langmuir isotherms and higher linear attenuation coefficients showed that the experimental data shows a better fit to Freundlich model (R2 = 0.9987) for Manihot esculenta, Langmuir model for Carica papaya and Moringa oleifera (R2 = 0.9931) (R2 = 0.9959). Kinetic studies were also executed for all the adsorbents and for Manihot esculenta data en suite well to pseudo-second order model (R2 = 0.9966), for Carica papaya (R2 = 0.9986) and for Moringa oleifera investigational data en suite well with Pseudo-first order (R2 = 0.9916) respectively.