Utilization of activated carbon produced from fruit juice industry solid waste for the adsorption of Yellow 18 from aqueous solutions

• Fruit waste was transformed into higher-value products such as activated carbon.
• The sour cherry stones activated carbon was effective in removal of Yellow 18.
• Both pH and temperature have a strong effect on adsorption capacity of Yellow 18.
• Yellow 18 adsorption behavior could be described by Langmuir isotherm model.
• Kinetic studies showed that pseudo-second-order model was suitable for Yellow 18.

The use of activated carbon obtained from sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) stones for the removal of a basic textile dye, which is Yellow 18, from aqueous solutions at different contact times, pH values and solution temperatures was investigated. The surface area and micropore volume of chemically modified activated carbon were 1704 m2 g−1 and 0.984 cm3 g−1, respectively. The experimental data indicated that the adsorption isotherms were well described by the Langmuir equilibrium isotherm equation and the calculated adsorption capacity was 75.76 mg g−1 at 318 K. The adsorption kinetic of Yellow 18 obeys the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic parameters were calculated to estimate the nature of adsorption. The activation energy of the system was calculated as 0.71–2.36 kJ/mol. According to these results, prepared activated carbon could be used as a low-cost adsorbent to compare with the commercial activated carbon for the removal of Yellow 18 from wastewater.