Effectiveness of Quercus Branti Activated Carbon in Removal of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solutions

Background & Aims of the Study: Dyes are one of the most contaminants in textileindustrial wastewater that they are often carcinogenic, mutagenic and non-degradable.Therefore, with regard to environmental aspects, their removal from effluents is veryessential. The purpose of this study was the perception of adsorption process and promotionof an economic technology for colored wastewater treatment. Therefore, activated carbonfrom Oak fruit bark was used as an effective and economic adsorbent.Materials & Methods: This study was performed at laboratory scale and batch system. Atpresent study, the adsorbent surface properties was evaluated by use of the (FT-IR) test andscanning electronic microscope (SEM). Also, effect of various operating parameters suchas pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, initial dye concentration and temperature on dyeremoval from synthetic wastewater were studied.Results: In this study, maximum removal efficiency of methylene blue were achieved atoptimal pH=6, reaction time 180 minutes, and adsorbent dose 2 gl-1. Methylene blueremoval efficiency with initial concentration of 100 mg.l-1 was 91.08%.Conclusions: According to results, it was cleared that : Quercus branti activated carbon canbe used as an effective and economic adsorbent in waste water treatment processes.

Keywords:

Quercus branti activated carbon , Methylene blue , adsorption process , textileindustry , Iran