Utilizing pomegranate peel biochar for effective malachite green adsorption

Abstract

The quest for efficient treatment technology has been spurred by the possibility that malachite green dye saturated wastewater may negatively impact both human health and the environment. Accordingly, this research was conducted to turn pomegranate peel into a biochar adsorbent for the elimination of malachite green that is spiked in water. Initial dye concentration, pH, contact time, volume of solution, and adsorbent dose were the five primary factors taken into consideration while designing all the tests. An amorphous structure was detected in the pomegranate peel activated carbon by XRD. Surface area was analyzed using BET for the specific surface area of 46.363 m²/g. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to examine the surface characteristics, including porosity and cracks. At 200 mg/L, 16.3 mg, pH 7, and 100 min, the greatest dye removal efficiency and adsorption capacity of 99.85 % and 362.6 mg/g were recorded under testing circumstances. The adsorption process was preferred to follow the Freundlich model with R² of 0.9996. Moreover, the pseudo-second-order model suited the data better than the other kinetic models. The homogeneous, monolayer surfaces driven by chemisorption were the nature of the adsorption, as demonstrated by the kinetics and isotherm analysis. Moreover, the research of thermodynamics demonstrated that adsorption is endothermic (+58.9 kJ/mol) and spontaneous (ΔG < 0). Finally, the regeneration of the adsorbent was investigated using four different eluents, and the potential for adsorbing other dyes was also evaluated. It can be concluded that industrial effluents could be effectively treated using the adsorbent material derived from pomegranate peel, as it is environmentally friendly, readily available, and possesses high adsorption capacity.