Study of the influence of operational parameters on the adsorption of a dye by a potato peels

Abstract

The growing demand for adsorbent materials for environmental protection processes is prompting further research in the manufacture of unconventional and low cost adsorbents. In this work we have prepared a material from a natural waste namely potato peels to clean up contaminated water with a cationic dye i.e. Methylene Blue (MB). Firstly a characterization of the material was carried out in terms of bulk density, ash content, moisture content, pH and electrical conductivity. A parametric study was carried out subsequently and revealed that this adsorbent gives a better adsorption efficiency with respect to BM molecules (Tx = 95.13%) during a contact time of 45 min for a solid mass (4 g), a speed stirring (150 rpm), a solid mass/liquid volume ratio (4 g/250 mL) and an initial dye concentration (10 ppm). The modeling of the adsorption results gave an L-type isotherm with good compatibility with the Langmuir and Freundlich models.