Biosorption of chromium (VI) from textile waste water using luffa cylindrica activated carbon

Abstract

AbstractLuffa cylindrica was applied as a low‐cost adsorbent for removing chromium (VI) from textile industry effluent in this study. The adsorbent was characterized using scanning electron micrograph (SEM). A batch mode experiment was conducted to study the effect of pH, contact time, and adsorbent dosage on the adsorptive potential of the prepared luffa cylindrica activated carbon. The characterization results from SEM indicate that the adsorbents' potential was fully exploited in this study. A significance test conducted using ANOVA indicated that contact time and adsorbent dosage had the most effect on the adsorptive removal of Cr (VI). The optimum removal efficiency was 99.90% at pH 8.0, 99.8% at 60 min of contact time, and 99.82% at an adsorbent dosage of 1.0 g. The experimental results were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models, and the Freundlich isotherm provided a better correlation for Cr (VI) adsorption. The kinetic data by the pseudo‐first‐order kinetic model gave a better fit than the pseudo‐second‐order kinetic model.