Evaluation of New Adsorbents and Parametric Analysis for Determining Effectiveness in Sugar Decolourisation

For a sustainable process, efficient materials and processes must be employed. Batch experiments were used to study the effect of various operating parameters such as the sugar concentration, temperature, adsorbent dose, and pH. In addition, determination of adsorption isotherms and pe∼ormancevaluation of two types of activated carbon, a commercial PICA and a new Maxsorb 3000 activated carbon. An increase in temperature resulted in an increase in the decolourisation rate. Furthermore, the amount of colourants removed, signlficantly increased with the amount of activated carbon; however the efficiency of decolourisation decreased. A 400% increase in activated carbon resulted in a 50% increase in decolourisation. Tests showed that a low pH strongly favours the removal of high molecular weight (HMW) colourants, while basic conditions slightly favour the removal of low molecular weight (LMW) colourants. The in‐situ sorption isotherms measured showed that the new activated carbon is superior to the widely used commercial activated carbon.