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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential use of biomass-based adsorbents, such as sugarcane bagasse, sawdust, and neem leaf, for the removal of malachite green from simulated and real effluent. The adsorbents prepared from bagasse are pretreated with formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, and phosphoric acid to improve the surface properties like porosity and surface area and its reflection on adsorption capacity. Neem leaf was used as an untreated adsorbent to compare the performance with that of treated adsorbents. The adsorption capacity of treated bagasse, sawdust, and untreated neem leaf adsorbent were compared with that of commercial powdered–activated carbon. The effect of initial dye concentration, adsorbent dosage and adsorbent surface modification on dye removal was examined for different contact time. It was observed that the adsorption efficiency of phosphoric acid–treated bagasse and neem leaf powder gives higher percentage of dye removal (97%) as compared to sulfuric acid- and formaldehyde-treated adsorbents (89% and 86%). Experiments performed on a real effluent using PSB as the adsorbent indicated a maximum color removal of 79% for an adsorbent dosage of 1 g/100 mL. Also equilibrium studies of the adsorption process were carried out and the adsorption data were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models.