Characterization and Dye Effluent Treatment Applications of Mesoporous Activated Carbon Produced from Bio-Diesel Industrial Waste - Jatropha Hull

N. Sivakumar¹, S. Ponnusamy² and P. M. Gopalsamy³

¹Department of Chemistry, Chikkanna Government Arts College, Tiruppur, India.

²Department of Chemistry, Government Arts College (autonomous), Coimbatore, India.

³Department of Chemistry, Gobi Arts & Science College, Gobichettipalayam, India.

ABSTRACT: The adsorption of three different commercial dyes used in textile industry acid dye (Acid Blue 74), direct dye (Direct Black 19) and basic dyes (Basic Brown1) on a highly meso porous activated carbon obtained by single step steam pyrolysis of bio diesel industrial waste namely Jatropha -seed hull was investigated in terms of size of dye molecules, pore size and surface charge of the activated carbon. The activated carbon obtained from jatropha hull (JHC) was mainly meso porous in nature, with a surface area of 722 m2/g and an average pore diameter of 2.332 nm. CAC, the commercial reference was mainly micro porous with a surface area of 1026 m2/g and an average diameter of 1.8 nm. Small size molecules of acid dye and basic dye were adsorbed in high amounts on to both JHC and CAC. The amounts of direct dye, which is large in one or two dimensions of molecular structures, adsorbed on a mesoporous JHC was much higher than those on CAC. From these results it was clear that the adsorption of dyes on JHC activated carbon influenced greatly by pore size and surface charge of activated carbon. The results indicate that JHC could be employed as low-cost alternative to commercial activated carbon in wastewater treatment for the removal of acid dyes.

KEYWORDS: Activated carbon; jatropha husk; Adsorption; Porosity; Isotherms; surface area

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