Coconut frond as adsorbent in removal of methylene blue dye

• Main Author: Aswinee Tangga Rajoo
• Format: Undergraduate Final Project Report
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/6530/

Agricultural waste which is not being utilized wisely found its way in being a potential adsorbent in removal of dyes. In the current study, raw coconut frond was used as adsorbent in the removal of methylene blue dye. Adsorption using raw agricultural waste proved to be more economical compared to other dye removal methods as the method of production is relatively easy. Various parameters were investigated such as adsorbent size, adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration, contact time and pH to determine the optimum conditions. Optimum values were obtained at 0.125 pm of adsorbent size with 0.5 g of adsorbent at 24 hours as contact time. Initial dye concentration at its optimum level, were found to be 50 mg/L working efficiently at pH 8. Adsorption isotherms were studied to understand the mechanism of dye adsorption and the experimental values obtained were fitted well on Langmuir isotherm. Maximum adsorption capacity is 18.69 mg/g with R² = 1 suggesting monolayer adsorption mechanism. Removal percentage achieved 90% and above showing coconut frond has potential in removing methylene blue dye which is causing a lot of environmental and health problem.