Z Khalili - ۱Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, P.O.Box۱۵۸۷۵- ۴۴۱۳., Tehran, Iran
B Bonakdarpour - Food Process Engineering and Biotechnology Research Centre, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

In this work, decolorization of C.I.Reactive Black5 (RB5) was carried out under batch anaerobic condition using activated sludge. The effects of medium composition on RB5 decolourisation efficiency were investigated by employing statistical design of experiments. The Plackett-Burman design was used to determine which medium components had a positive effect on decolorization of this azo reactive dye. Statistical analysis of the results showed that FeCl2.4H2O, MgSO4.7H2O, and MnCl2.4H2O had a positive contribution to azo dye decolorization. A Box-Behken design was performed to obtain the optimum concentration of these three media components with respect to dye decolourisation.

Activated sludge, Azo dye decolorization, Box-Behnken, Plackett-Burman, Reactive Black 5