Capacity of Activated Carbon Derived from Agricultural Waste in the Removal of Reactive Dyes from Aqueous Solutions

The study describes the results of batch experiments on the removal of Reactive Yellow 15 (RY15) and Reactive Black 5 (RB5) from synthetic textile wastewater onto Activated Carbon from Walnut shell (ACW). The experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir, Freundlish, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) models of adsorption. The experiments were carried out as function of initial concentrations, pH, temperature (303-333), adsorbent dose and kinetics. The surface area and pore volumes of adsorbent were measured by BET and BJH methods. The findings confirm the surface area (BET) is 248.99 $m^2/g$. The data fitted well with the Temkin and D-R isotherms for RY15 and RB5, respectively. The most favorable adsorption occurred in acidic pH. Pseudo-second order kinetic model were best in agreement with adsorption of RY15 and RB5 on ACW. The results indicate that walnut shell could be an alternative to more costly adsorbent currently being used for dyes removal.