Kinetic studies on the adsorption of methylene blue onto vegetal fiber activated carbons

•The ability of activated carbon of loofa to bind MB was tested.•SEM study showed that the activated carbons were porous with well developed pores.•The maximum % removal of MB obtained was 99% at 50 °C for AC1.•The optimum pH value was determined to be 2.0 for AC1 and to be 10.0 for AC2.

The vegetable sponge of cylindrical loofa (CL), a natural product which grows in the north of Algeria, was used to prepare activated carbons. Two activated carbons, AC1 and AC2, by two physiochemical activation methods to be used for methylene blue removal from wastewater. The surface structure of AC1, AC2 and CL were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Adsorption isotherm of methylene blue onto the prepared activated carbons was determined by batch tests. The effects of various parameters such as contact time, initial concentration, pH, temperature, adsorbent dose and granulometry were investigated, at agitation rate 150 rpm. The results showed that the equilibrium uptake increased with increasing initial MB concentration. The maximum % removal of MB obtained was 99% at 50 °C for AC1 and 82% at 30 °C for AC2. The increase in initial pH in the ranges of 2-10 increases the yields removal of MB on AC2. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were applied to test the experimental data. The latter provided the best correlation of the experimental data compared to the pseudo-first-order model.

Graphical abstractDownload full-size image