A Comparative Study for the Removal of Methylene Blue Dye from Aqueous Solution by Novel Activated Carbon Based Adsorbents

This study was conducted to assess the ability of the studied adsorbent, i.e. raw oak fruit hulls and the activated carbon prepared from oak fruit hull for removing the Methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. This study was conducted under various effective parameters, e.g., contact time, pH, MB concentration, adsorbent concentration. The optimum amount of each parameter was determined and the isotherm and kinetic studies were also carried out. The results revealed that the best results for MB removal efficiency are observed using the activated carbon prepared from oak fruit hulls. It was also observed that increasing the contact time, pH and adsorbent concentration provides better condition to enhance the dye removal efficiency and increasing the MB, hence reducing the removal efficiency. Furthermore, the results also clarified that the best models to describe the MB adsorption onto the raw oak fruit hulls and activated carbon are the Langmuir model 1 (R2=0.9971) and Langmuir 2 (R2=0.7631), respectively. In addition, the adsorption of MB onto the raw oak fruit hulls and activated carbon are better fitted to pseudo-second-order model and zero-order model, respectively. Finally, it can be concluded that the activated carbon prepared from the raw oak fruit hulls is more valuble than the raw oak fruit hull for removing the MB.