Adsorption of an acid textile dye in fixed bed column system by activated carbon produced from tree barks

Abstract

In the present study, a low cost activated carbon which produced from Eucalyptus camaldulensis barks (ECAC) was used for the removal of Acid red 360 (360) with fixed bed column adsorption systems. The data from the column experiences were fitted to the Thomas and BDST models to predict the dynamic behavior, breakthrough performance, and adsorption capacity of the column. The BDST model described (R2=0.997) the fix bed adsorption process well with correlation coefficients range between from 0.975 to 0.999. Also BDST model showed that the breakthrough time has a linear relationship with the bed depth. The Thomas model predicted 259.41 mg/gr maximum adsorption capacity of the EBMC for AR360 with a 0.997 correlation coefficient under certain conditions. The experiments showed that the breakthrough time significantly increased by increasing column bed depth and decreased by increasing initial AR360 concentration. Keywords: Activated carbon, Eucalyptus, Adsorption