Biochar based on plantain peel as adsorbent for Rhodamine B Dye Removal

Agricultural waste such as risk husk, coconut frond and fruit based waste has the ability to treat the industrial wastewater especially textile effluent which contain dyes. Amount of industrial effluent is increasing as a result of rapid industrialisation. Adsorption using biochar is found as a best technique to treat the effluent. Biochar based on agricultural waste are effective in removal of dyes. This study is proposed to investigate the adsorption capacity of biochar based on plantain peel for removal of Rhodamine B dye. This is because plantain peel and biochar based on it as bioadsorbent are rarely reported in literature. Based on literature, modified agricultural waste has higher adsorption capacity than raw. Carbonisation temperature, adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration, contact time and pH are the main variables in this study to identify the optimum conditions for adsorption. 800 °C was found as optimum temperature for the preparation of biochar. 5 g of adsorbent was an optimum dosage for the removal of initial dye concentration of 100 mg/L Rhodamine B. 2 hour was the time taken to reach equilibrium and pH 2 was favourable condition for the removal of Rhodamine B. The equilibrium data was best-fitted to Langmuir Isotherm and the values of R2, qmax., and KL were 0.9988, 1.723 and -9.467 respectively.