Enhanced removal of Congo red dye from aqueous solution by surface modified activated carbon with bacteria

AIMS

The adsorption behaviour and mechanisms of the surface modified activated carbon with bacteria was evaluated.

METHODS AND RESULTS

16S rRNA was employed to identify the hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria. The bacteria was characterized by TEM and electron microscope. The surface modified activated carbon with bacteria was characterized by SEM. The adsorption behaviour was tested by static adsorption and dynamic adsorption.

CONCLUSION

The adsorption efficiency of the modified activated carbon was high when pH was weak acidic, and the adsorption capacity increased with the increase of temperature ranging from 20 to 35°C. The adsorption capacity peaked at 234·6 mg g^-1 at 25°C, which was sixfold higher than that of activated carbon. The pseudo-first-order kinetic can more accurately assess Congo red adsorption on the two adsorbents. The adsorption of Congo red by bacteria surface modified activated carbon fitted well with the Langmuir's model. The adsorption process was endothermic, and the biological floccules were formed during the adsorption. The physical adsorption is the main driving force.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

The results indicate that the bacteria surface-modified activated carbon can be used effectively as an adsorbent to eliminate Congo red from aqueous solutions.

Adsorption of Cd (II) on Modified Granular Activated Carbons: Isotherm and Column Study

In this work, equilibrium and dynamic adsorption tests of cadmium Cd (II) on activated carbons derived from different oxidation treatments (with either HNO₃, H₂O₂, or NaOCl, corresponding to GACoxN, GACoxP, and GACoxCl samples) are presented. The oxidation treatments determined an increase in the surface functional groups (mainly the acidic ones) and a decrease in the pH_PZC (except for the GACoxCl sample). A slight alteration of the textural parameters was also observed, which was more significant for the GACoxCl sample, in terms of a decrease of both Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and micropore volume. Adsorption isotherms were determined for all the adsorbents and a significant increase in the adsorption performances of the oxidized samples with respect to the parent material was observed. The performances ranking was GACoxCl > GACoxP > GACoxN > GAC, likely due to the chemical surface properties of the adsorbents. Dynamic tests in a fixed bed column were carried out in terms of breakthrough curves at constant Cd inlet concentration and flow rate. GACoxCl and GACoxN showed a significantly higher value of the breakpoint time, likely due to the higher adsorption capacity. Finally, the dynamic tests were analyzed in light of a kinetic model. In the adopted experimental conditions, the results showed that mass transfer is controlled by internal pore diffusion, in which surface diffusion plays a major role.