Biosorption of styrene from synthetic wastewater by sugar cane waste(Bagass)

In this work, styrene removal from wastewater by using sugarcane waste (bagasse) as an adsorbent was studied. Equilibrium isotherms and kinetics were determined; the effects of bagasse particle size and concentration, solutions pH, and temperature on the biosorption of styrene were studied in batch experiments. Adsorption equilibrium data was successfully fitted to Langmuir isotherms (R2=0.986) and Freundlich isotherms (R2=0.96). Also, the kinetics of biosorption was fitted to pseudo-second order equations (K2=0.00146 g mg-1 min-1, qe=24.5 mg g-1 for particle size range of 88-105 μm). According to the obtained results, an empirical equation was presented that could be used to calculate the percentage of styrene adsorption. The results showed that an increase in temperature caused a decrease in styrene removal. Moreover, maximum uptake was observed with NaOH-treated bagasse. It was found that an increase in average particle size decreased the biosorption rate. According to the calculated heat of adsorption, this sorption can be classified as a chemical biosorption. The optimum uptake was determined to be 88% at a pH equal to 12.1, a temperature of 35 oC, a particle size of 420-500 μm, and a bagasse concentration of 1 g L-1.