STUDIES ON THE REMOVAL OF MALACHITE GREEN AND METHYLENE BLUE DYES FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS OF THEIR BINARY MIXTURE BY ADSORBTION OVER COMMERCIAL ACTIVATED CARBON AND TAMARIND KERNEL POWDER
The waste water originating from textile processing industries is a complex mixture of potentially polluting substances consisting of textile dyes, heavy metals associated with dyes and the other auxiliaries used during process. Adsorption appears to offer the best prospects for over all treatment of dye stuff effluent. As Commercial Activated Carbon used as adsorbent for adsorption is very expensive, there is a need for an alternative for it. In this context, we have planned to use Tamarind Kernel Powder (TKP) a biological waste material as a low cost adsorbent 1 Literature survey reveals that removal of various dyes using different low cost adsorbens have been carried out extensively. But a study on removal of dyes from their aqueous solution from their binary mixture is very scarce. The present work deals with combined removal of (Malachite Green Methylene Blue) dyes from the aqueous solution of their binary mixture using the low cost adsorbent Tamarind Kernel Powder (TKP) and Commercial Activated Carbon (CAC) and to compare the effectiveness of the adsorbent TKP with CAC in the removal of dyes. Variation of initial concentration, pH dose, and contact time affected the adsorption process. From the results of present study, we can conclude that adsorption processes are applicable for adsorption of dyes from aqueous solution of their binary mixture. TKP can be used as low cost adsorbent as an alternative adsorbent to CAC in waste water treatment for the removal of dyes. We find that TKP has an efficiency comparable to that of CAC, expect for the optimum dose.