Biochar from bamboo (Schizostachyum brachycladum sp.) as adsorbent for removal of congo red dye

Nowadays, dye has been used widely in the industrial applications as colorants. The by-product from this activity will cause harmful to the aquatic living organism and water pollution problem. Adsorption is one of the techniques that are used for removal of dye in aqueous solution. Biochar was recognized to be potential adsorbent for dye removal and it will reduce the cost of water treatment compare to conventional methods. Bamboo from Schizostachyum brachycladum sp. has been chosen as organic material because it exhibit woody properties aims to get a good properties of biochar during carbonization and achieve the best adsorption strength. Batch adsorption studies was carried out such as effect of carbonization temperature, size of adsorbent, adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration, contact time and pH to measure the adsorption efficiency of bamboo bio-char to remove Congo red dye in aqueous solution. The higher carbonization temperature was recorded at 800°C for 3 hours and has shown the best percentage of dye removal with size of 710 µm for 1g. Langmuir model was more suitable adsorption isotherm for adsorption process of bamboo biochar than Freundlich isotherm, indicating monolayer adsorption of Congo red dye on a bamboo biochar surface.