Methyl Orange (MO) removal using activated carbon from rice straw, optimization using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

Abstract

Textile industry is one of the main contributors for the huge amounts of wastewater containing dye and the effluents are responsible for major environment concerns in wastewater treatments. Removal of organic dyes in wastewater is being concern because it can cause major environmental problems due to the dangers to natural environment and human health. Adsorption is one of the most effective methods that can be used for the removal of dye in wastewater. The highly potential of using the low-cost adsorbents for reducing the concentration of dye in the contaminated water make it an available option to use adsorption method due to highly expensive of commercial activated carbon. It is also can be the answer for the reducing the municipal solid waste management in this country. The rice straw is a lignocellulosic agricultural by product containing cellulose (37.4%), hemi-cellulose (44.9%), lignin (4.9%) and silicon ash (13.1%). The preparation of rice straw carbon followed the condition selected by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with the activation temperature of 600 oC, activation time of 3 hours and impregnation ratio 1:2. The KOH treated rice straw carbon show the removal about 90% of dyes after agitated with 0.4 gram adsorbents at contact time 150 minutes. The study obtained the optimum equilibrium time, the optimum adsorbents dosages and the suitable pH for this study which were 150 minutes, 0.4 gram of an adsorbents and pH 4 respectively. FT-IR analysis shows the presence of some functional groups such as alcohol, alkene, alkyne, amine, and ester.