Adsorption of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solution by Pumpkin-Seed Residue

Abstract

Objective : Present research discussed the utilization of pumpkin-seed residue (PSR) after oil extraction with methanol as an adsorbent for methylene blue (MB) removal from aqueous solution.Method : The experiment was carried out to evaluate the influence of PSR adsorbent dose (7.5-25 g/L), initial MB concentration (25-200 mg/L), contact time (30-120 min), pH (3-11), and temperature (293-333 K). Adsorption isotherms were modeled with the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherms. The kinetic data were analyzed using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models.Results and Discussion : A pseudo-equilibrium state was reached within 30 min of contact time at low initial MB concentration (25-50 mg/L) and 90 min at high concentration (100-200 mg/L). Increasing pH and temperature caused an increase in adsorption capacity. Thermodynamic studies demonstrated that the adsorption process was spontaneous with Gibb’s free-energy values ranging between -15.78 to -13.87 kJ/mol and endothermic with an enthalpy value of 0.011 kJ/mol. The adsorption equilibrium data fitted well with the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity was 20.33 mg/g. Tempkin isotherm model clarified that the heat of sorption process was 6.28 J/mol. The adsorption kinetics was found to follow the pseudo-second order kinetics model and its rate constant was 0.002-0.278 g/mg･min.Conclusions : Findings of the present study indicated that the PSR can be successfully used for removal of MB from aqueous solution. Therefore, the PSR was shown to have good potential as a biosorbent for MB removal.