Mass transfer model for the adsorption of basic dyes on woodmeal in agitated batch adsorbers

Abstract

The adsorption of three basic dyes, Basic Blue 3, Basic Blue 69 and Basic Orange 2, onto woodmeal has been studied in batch adsorbers. The effects of initial dye concentration and mass of woodmeal have been studied. A two-resistance mathematical model has been developed based on external mass transfer, pore diffusion and the assumption of an irreversible isotherm for operating conditions lying on the monolayer of observed Langmuir isotherms. The model, which has an analytical solution, predicts theoretical concentration decay curves which show good agreement with observed experimental decay curves.