Removal of Methylene Blue and Congo Red Using Adsorptive Membrane Impregnated with Dried Ulva fasciata and Sargassum dentifolium.

Gehan Safwat,Ahmed Labena,Adil A. Gobouri,Ayman Diab,Ahmed E. Abdelhamid,Ehab Azab,Liqaa Hamid,Shimaa Husien,Abeer S. Amin

doi:10.3390/plants10020384

Abstract

Biosorption is a bioremediation approach for the removal of harmful dyes from industrial effluents using biological materials. This study investigated Methylene blue (M. blue) and Congo red (C. red) biosorption from model aqueous solutions by two marine macro-algae, Ulva fasciata and Sargassum dentifolium, incorporated within acrylic fiber waste to form composite membranes, Acrylic fiber-U. fasciata (AF-U) and Acrylic fiber-S. dentifolium (AF-S), respectively. The adsorption process was designed to more easily achieve the 3R process, i.e., removal, recovery, and reuse. The process of optimization was implemented through one factor at a time (OFAT) experiments, followed by a factorial design experiment to achieve the highest dye removal efficiency. Furthermore, isotherm and kinetics studies were undertaken to determine the reaction nature. FT-IR and SEM analyses were performed to investigate the properties of the membrane. The AF-U membrane showed a significant dye removal efficiency, of 88.9% for 100 ppm M. blue conc. and 79.6% for 50 ppm C. red conc. after 240 min sorption time. AF-S recorded a sorption capacity of 82.1% for 100 ppm M. blue conc. after 30 min sorption time and 85% for 100 ppm C. red conc. after 240 min contact time. The membranes were successfully applied in the 3Rs process, in which it was found that the membranes could be used for five cycles of the removal process with stable efficiency.

Highlights

Water pollution is considered a significant global problem, recently causing destruction of the ecosystem and having significant effects on human health
Different contact times of 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 12 h were investigated for M. blue and C. red removal using Acrylic fiber-U. fasciata (AF-U) and Acrylic fiber-S. dentifolium (AF-S) membranes in a static model with 100 ppm dye conc. and pH 7
It was noted that the M. blue removal efficiency increased by increasing the contact time to 2 h for the Acrylic fibers (AF)-U and 4 h for the AF-S membrane; subsequently, the removal rose slightly

Summary

Introduction

Water pollution is considered a significant global problem, recently causing destruction of the ecosystem and having significant effects on human health. Many physico-chemical technologies, such as adsorption, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, and membrane filtration, have been proposed for the removal of dyes from polluted wastewater [5,6,7,8] These technologies are ineffective at small scales due to their high cost and the large amount of hazardous waste that may be generated by their used [9]. The search for new alternative approaches, such as algal incorporation with polymeric substances, aims to simultaneously provide an easy harvesting process and better removal efficiency Many polymeric materials, both synthetic or natural, can be used in different forms, such as beads, powders, filaments, and membranes with a controlled morphology. Several research papers reported the recycling of acrylic fiber waste via chemical treatment of nitrile groups or grafting techniques [21,23] These techniques involve high cost and significant energy use and produce byproducts that cause environmental problems

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Conclusion