Preparation of low-cost acidic modified-adsorbent from agricultural waste palm leaf to remove methylene blue from aqueous solutions

Abstract

Disposing wastewater from textile industries and dyes into water bodies has aesthetic effects on the nature of water, it can also cause serious adverse environmental impacts on the water ecosystem by reducing sunlight penetration and photosynthetic reactions. Adsorption is one of the most common methods for removal of toxic pollutants due to its easy and cheap operation. Using agricultural waste to prepare cheap and simple adsorbents is an alternative method for commercial carbons. In this research, a cost-effective adsorbent was fabricated from palm leaf agricultural waste during two stages of carbonization and modification with acid. XRD and FTIR analyses were used to characterize the carbon-based adsorbent. The funding indicated that the removal performance of methylene blue at an initial concentration of 25 mg/L is about 99.6 % after 60 min of reaction at solution pH 7. However, the highest adsorption capacity of 175.6 mg/g was achieved at the adsorbent dose of 25 mg. The adsorption isotherm and kinetics evaluation indicated that the adsorption of methylene blue on the adsorbent prepared from palm leaf waste is chemical heterogeneous adsorption. The findings of the present research promise the development of a cost-effective adsorbent from agricultural waste to remove dye compounds from industrial wastewater at near-neutral conditions.