Surface-modified Water hyacinth (<i>Eichhornia crassipes</i>) over activated carbon for wastewater treatment: A comparative account

Abstract

Finding an economical, efficient and easy handling alternative for commercial grade activated charcoal (AC) in textile wastewater treatment is a dire need. To address this, a noxious weed water hyacinth (WH) has been explored as a ‘biosorbent’ for the decolorization of the hazardous textile dye,Remazol BrilliantRed 3BS (RBR 3BS) in wastewater.Anovel surface modification has been carried out using the quaternary ammonium salt, N-Cetyl-N,N,N–trimethyl ammonium bromide, to enhance the dye decolorization capacity of raw WH. The impact of several process parameters, viz. pH, dosage of adsorbent, temperature, concentration and contact time have been examined. Batch adsorption studies, kinetic-thermodynamics, isothermal modelling and error analysis have been studied to ascertain the efficacy of the adsorbent. A comparison of the results has been carried out with activated carbon (AC). Surface-modifiedWHshowed the highest dye uptake of 104.26 mg g^–1, at 27 °C, which was about 10 times more than that ofAC. Isothermal, kinetic and thermodynamic studies were conducted for identification of adsorption type taking place for dye–adsorbent systems. Energy of activation was 8.65 kJ mol^–1 for treatedWHand 8.98 kJ mol^–1 forAC. It was proven that surface-modified WH had a high capability to replace AC for adsorption treatments.