An investigation of bamboo charcoal potential as methylene blue dye remover

Abstract

Dyes production industry such as textile, produces wastewater which is high in color and organic content. The presence of Methylene Blue, MB dye in discharged water is hazardous for human beings. Most common adsorbent used for decolorization is from chemical approach that often high cost and environment disadvantage. Therefore, the potential of bamboo charcoal powder for MB removal is studied. Operating variables studied were pyrolysis temperature, initial MB concentration, adsorbent dosage and also the contact time. The adsorption capacity of MB increases with the increase of pyrolysis temperature, contact time and adsorbent dosage but decreases with the increasing of initial MB concentration. The adsorption percentage studied for different pyrolysis temperature and different initial MB concentration, reached 28.831 % at pyrolysis temperature 900 C with initial concentration of 10%. The adsorbent dosage at 0.1 Og and 0.15g seems to be overdose for initial MB concentration of 20%. However, the adsorption percentage reached 66.940% when reacted with 0.15g bamboo charcoal powder at pyrolysis temperature 900 ° C, also with initial concentration 20%. By effect of contact time, the adsorption percentage of bamboo charcoal powder at pyrolysis temperature of 900 ° C reached 77.6755% within 90 minutes of reaction with initial concentration 20%. The morphology of bamboo charcoal powder at pyrolysis temperature 500 ° ° C, 700 ° C and 900 C was captured at variety of magnification scales which are x2500, x5000 and x7500 using the Scanning Electrons Microscopy (SEM) and it shows that the pores of bamboo charcoal powder at pyrolysis temperature 900 ° C seem wider compared to bamboo charcoal powder at pyrolysis temperature 500 ° C. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) results showed that the functional group that might occur in MB solution was alkenes with -C=C- stretch, aliphatic amines with C-N stretch, alkynes with C-H bending and also alkyl halides with C-Cl stretch. Most of the functional groups occurred in bamboo charcoal powder denotes the presence of carbon.