Removal of methylene blue from an aqueous solution using Plumbago zeylanica Leaves-Optimisation using response surface methodology (RSM) Pallavi P.1,*, King P.2, Kumar Y. Prasanna3 1Department of Civil Engineering, JBIT College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad-500085, (Telangana) India 2Department of Chemical Engineering, Andhra University College of Engineering, Visakhapatnam-530003, (Andhra Pradesh) India 3Visakha Institute of Engineering and Technology, Visakhapatnam, India *Corresponding Author E-mail: pallavichemico@gmail.com
Online published on 21 August, 2018. Abstract Dyes are colour organic compounds which can colorize the substances usually present in the effluent water of many industries such as textiles, leather, paper, printing and cosmetics. The feasibility of removing dye from an aqueous solution using Plumbago zeylanica, a natural source was tested by biosorption process. The Plumbago zeylanica was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. FTIR results showed that complexation and ion exchange appears to be the principal mechanism for MB biosorption.. Batch biosorption technique was used to investigate the effects of various experimental parameters like contact time, solution pH, initial dye concentration, dosage of the biosorbent, average biosorbent size and temperature on biosorption. The biosorption data were well described by the Freundlich model, although they could be modeled by Langmuir, Temkin isotherm models. Three simplified kinetic models including pseudo-first order, pseudosecond order and Elovchi models were selected to follow the biosorption model. The pseudo-second order model agrees with experimental data well. The obtained thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy, entropy and free energy indicated that the biosorption of methylene blue onto Plumbago zeylanica is exothermic and spontaneous process. RSM studies were conducted to optimize the biosorption process. Top Keywords Biosorption, Plumbago zeylanica, Isotherms, Kinetics, Thermodynamics, RSM. Top |