Mitigation of Amaranth Dye from Aqueous Solution Using Steam Activated Pigmented Rice Husk Carbon as an Adsorbent

Abstract

Dyes represent one of the problematic groups. Though commercial activated carbon is a preferred sorbent for colour removal, its widespread use is restricted due to high cost. In the present work, the steam activated pigmented carbon prepared from rice husk (B.N. Oryza Sativa) was investigated as an adsorbent to remove Amaranth dye from aqueous solutions. The adsorbent was investigated under variable system parameters, such as, initial concentration of the aqueous dye solution, agitation time, adsorbent amount and temperature. The results of the present study have indicated that an amount of 0.8 g SAPRHC per litre could remove 43.0% of the dye from an aqueous solution of 10 ppm with agitation time 300 minutes. The interactions were tested with respect to both pseudo first-order and second-order kinetics. The later was found to be more suitable. High value of q $_m$ indicates high capacity of adsorption and the value of the coefficient b indicates that the interaction of dye with SAPRHC i.e. (dye + SAPRHC = dye....SAPRHC complex) leads to the formation of a complex, being shifted overwhelmingly towards adsorption. The results obtained indicate a potential use of SAPRHC for removing dyes like Amaranth dye from water.