competitive adsorption of dye species onto biomass nanoporous carbon in single and bicomponent systems

Abstract

ABSTRACT We first present a cost-effective approach to simultaneously dispose of rutaceae plant waste (the discarded peels of orange, finger citron, pomelo and lemon) to yield biomass nanoporous carbons (BNCs). The adsorption of orange II (OII) and acid chrome blue K (ACBK) from aqueous solutions in single and binary dye systems by four types of BNCs were studied in a batch adsorption system. The adsorption studies include both equilibrium adsorption isotherms and kinetics. Four adsorption models for predicting the multicomponent equilibrium sorption isotherms have been compared in order to determine which one is the best fit model to predict or correlate binary adsorption data. The kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. It was found that the adsorption capacity of orange peel-based nanoporous carbon (OPC) is much higher than those of the other types of BNCs. In addition, OPC also shows higher OII uptake capacities from binary dye solutions. The four types of BNCs could be employed as a low-cost alternative for the removal of textile dyes from effluents.