Adsorptive De-Colouration of Textile Wastewater using an Acid-Modified Sawdust

Abstract

Batch study of the decolourisation of wastewater from a local textile facility by concentrated Sulfuric acidmodified sawdust was conducted. The adsorbent was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Elemental Diffraction X - ray Spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. The effects of adsorbent dose, contact time and temperature were investigated. The characterization analysis indicates that the adsorbent has potential adsorption sites with several pores, and carbon content as high as 66.77%.The percentage color removal from the wastewater increased with adsorbent dose, contact time and temperature. The efficiency of the adsorbent is high, with a dose as low as 1 g removing as much as 88 % of the color from the wastewater.

Keywords: Adsorption, Batch studies, Modification, and Wastewater