Adsorption and desorption study of malachite green using coconut frond biochar in packed bed continuous system

The present research work focuses on the adsorption and desorption of the Malachite Green (MG) dye by coconut frond biochar (CFB) in a packed bed continuous system. The MG dye which was discharged in the effluent from the batik industry will pollute the water source. The abundance of coconut frond (CF) from the coconut plantation can be used as the adsorbent in dye adsorption. The CFB from the carbonisation of CF was characterised by using the analysis of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Brunaeur-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS). The physical and chemical properties of the CFB showed the ability of it on the adsorption of dye molecules. The initial dye concentration and flow rate of the dye effluents across the packed bed of CFB was studied for the adsorption process. The initial dye concentration of 50 mg/L and flow rate of 4.2 mL/min were the optimum parameters for the MG dye adsorption by the CFB. The desorption process was studied by using HCl and the percentage of desorption of MG dye from CFB was found as 95.20% for the first cycle. Three kinetic models- Thomas Model (TM), Adams-Bohart Model (ABM) and Yoon-Nelson Model (YNM) were applied to study the kinetic part in the continuous column adsorption. The TM and YNM were fitted to the parameters of 100mg/L and 200mg/L.