Adsorption of methylene blue dye using low cost adsorbent of sawdust : batch and continues studies

Abstract EN

The feasibility of sawdust as low cost adsorbent to remove methylene blue from aqueous solutions was investigated through batch and column studies.

Batch experiments were carried out with treated sawdust and commercial activated carbon to compare the adsorption behavior of them in terms of their adsorption capacities with the initial concentration of 100 mg / L and solution pH of 5.

Equilibrium data were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models.

The equilibrium data were best represented by the Langmuir isotherm model, with maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 30.11 mg/g for sawdust while 39.09 mg / g by using activated carbon.

In column experiments, fixed bed adsorption of methylene blue was performed on sawdust columns and the breakthrough curves were determined by varying bed depth, flow rate and influent concentration.

The highest operating time of 1200 min.

was obtained using 50 mg/l initial dye concentration, 20 cm bed height, pH of 5, and 3.33 * 10-6 m3 / sec flow rate.