Adsorption of disperse dye by various adsorbents

Laboratory investigations of C.I. Disperse Red 60 adsorption on molecular sieves, activated alumina, granular activated carbon (GAC), diatomite and sawdust were conducted in this study. The effectiveness of those adsorbents for pollutant removal and color reduction of disperse dye was examined and compared with that of powdered activated carbon (PAC). It was found that the activated alumina has only 61% COD removal efficiency in comparison with that of PAC while those of molecular sieves, GAC and diatomite are much lower. In terms of color removal, activated alumina and molecular sieves are as effective as PAC while GAC, diatomite and sawdust are much less effective. The monolayer Langmuir isotherm was found to represent well the measured adsorption data and the constant parameters of the adsorption isotherm were determined for all adsorbents. The simplified mass transfer model proposed previously was also used for estimating the mass transfer coefficients using the initial adsorption data for several adsorbents.