DETERMINATION OF REMOVAL EFFICIENCY OF METHYLENE BLUE FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTION USING CHEMICALLY ACTIVATED CARBON PRODUCED FROM MANGO SHELL

ABSTRACT

The presence of methylene blue (MB) in wastewater is a major concern in the environment due to its low biodegrability and harmful effect on man. The treatment of effluent containing such dye is important where adsorption on activated carbon (AC) produced from agricultural waste is of great choice. Optimization of the removal efficiency of MB from aqueous solution onto AC prepared from mango shell was investigated. The AC was prepared from mango shell, activated with BaCl2 at I.R (0.033-0.167), frequency (300-600 Hz), time (30-60 min) and carbonized at temperature (200-500 ◦C) and time (20-60 min) based on the 16 runs generated by the Design of Expert. Two-Level factorial design was applied for optimization. The least removal efficiency (27.08 %) was obtained at Run 10 [0.033, 500 °C, 20 min, 600 Hz, and 60 min] and highest removal efficiency (80.05 %) at Run 5 [0.033, 300 °C, 60 min, 300 Hz, and 30 min]. Correlation coefficient (R2) value of 1 was obtained and it is in reasonable agreement with Predicted R2 (0.998), which indicated that the model equation developed was significant. The optimized values of removal efficiency (79.436 %) was obtained at 0.033, 300 ͦC, 59.64 min, 300 Hz and 48.14 min as compared to the experimental value of 80.05%. The result implied that mango shell was suitable as an adsorbent material for adsorption of MB.

Keywords: Activated carbon, Adsorption, Methylene blue, Mango shell, Optimization, BaCl2, Factorial