Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) roots, an amazon natural waste, as an alternative biosorbent to uptake a reactive textile dye from aqueous solutions

Abstract

The effluents generated by the textile industries are potential environmental pollutants due to the presence of toxic dyes. Biosorption is a promising way for the removal of these contaminants from effluents. This technique is preferred when wastes are used as biosorbents. In this sense the use of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), a macrophyte that causes eutrophication, can be an alternative for dyes biosorption. This work aimed to evaluate the potential of water hyacinth roots as biosorbent for the removal of BF − 4B red reactive dye from aqueous media. In the biosorption kinetic assays, equilibrium time was reached in about 110 min, with 95% of dye removal. Pseudo−second order and Elovich models were adequate to represent the biosorption kinetic profile. The isotherms indicated that the biosorption process is favorable, tending to the Langmuir model with a maximum monolayer biosorption capacity of 43.28 mg g- 1.