The Effect of Different Operating Conditions on Removal of Reactive Dye by Green Carbon Adsorption

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the removal of reactive dye (Remazol Red denoted as RR) from aqueous solutions onto green carbon under various experimental conditions. Green carbon derived from sunflower seed cake (SSCAC) by impregnation with 50% wt. NH₄Cl solution following low temperature carbonization methods was characterized by FT-IR, SEM and elemental analysis. SSCAC was used as the adsorbent to examine the effects of pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, temperature and electrolytes. The adsorption of RR on SSCAC was favored at acidic medium with pH value of 2. When 50 mg/L dye solution was used, the maximum dye removal was obtained as 88.97% with 0.4 g/50 mL adsorbent dosage within 1 h contact time. The adsorption isotherm was best defined by the Langmuir model and dimensionless separation factors (R_L values) denoted that the adsorption was favorable. Kinetic study was found to be followed by the pseudo-second order model with high correlation coefficients.