Seaweed Biomass for the Removal of Basic Dyes From Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of removing methylene blue (taken as representative for dyes) from aqueous solutions, using sea, forest, agricultural and industrial by-products. Specifically seaweed was used, which comes ample in Greece and from many sources. The material was tested in raw form. Adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of adsorbent dose, pH, contact time and initial adsorbent concentration, on the adsorption process. The adsorption batch kinetics and adsorption equilibrium isotherms were further studied using the data obtained from these experiments. Moreover, adsorption column experiments were carried out and (i) Bohart-Adams and (ii) Clark bed depth column models were successfully used to fit these experimental data.