Removal and recovery of direct red 81 dye using argemone Mexicana: Column studies

Abstract

Argemone Mexicana, a crop weed, was utilized as a prospective adsorbent for removal and recovery of Direct red 81, a water soluble textile dye. The dynamic removal of the toxic dye by the natural adsorbent was studied in a fixed bed column. By percolating the dye solution through prepared fixed-bed columns of the adsorbent, bulk removal of the Direct red 81 was carried out and necessary parameters such as time involved in establishing the primary adsorption zone (tx), time required by primary adsorption zone to move down its length length (tδ), time of initial formation of primary adsorption zone (tf), fractional capacity of the column (f), mass rate flow of the adsorbent (Fm) were determined in order to evaluate the saturation factor. Argemone Mexicana seeds adsorbed 3.66 mg from 13.512 mg of the dye solution at neutral pH. Percentage recovery of 83.03% of the dye was obtained with 98.33% saturation of the bed column. Results suggested Argemone Mexicana to be a potential adsorbent for removal of Direct red 81 dye from its aqueous solution. Consequently, column adsorption and desorption experiments confirmed the practical applicability of the present research.