Equilibrium and kinetic studies for the removal of cationic dye using banana pith

Abstract

. The large quantity of green cull bananas has the potential of being used industrially and, thereby, to improve banana economics and eliminate the large environmental problem presented by banana waste. Wastewaters from textile, cosmetics, printing, dying, food colouring, and paper-making industries are polluted by dyes. The adsorption of basic dye by waste banana pith was investigated by varying dye concentrations, adsorbent dose, particle size and agitation rate. The adsorption capacity was found to be maximum value of removal by using 0.1 g of sorbent with particle size 1mm at mixing speed 200 rpm for initial concentration 25 mg/l to reach value of approximate 89%. The Langmuir, Temkin and Freundlich adsorption models were used for mathematical description of the adsorption equilibrium and it was found that experimental data fitted very well to these models except Langmuir model. Adsorption of dye was applied on (pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order kinetics), and the experimental data was more fitted to pseudo second order. The results of this study showed that banana pith could be employed as effective and low-cost materials for the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions.