Optimisation of malachite green removal using activated carbon derived from coconut shell as low cost adsorbent

Textile industry is a sub industry that contributes to economy of our country hence the industry keep growing from day to day. The processes that involved in textile industry are fibre production, spinning, twisting, weaving, knitting, scorching and dyeing which involved colours or dye. The combination of the processes and products make the waste water from textile plant contains many types of pollutants. The presence of smallest amount of dye in water (less than 1ppm) is highly visible and will affect the water transparency and gas (carbon dioxide, oxygen) solubility in the water body where the waste water discharged. Dyes are usually resistant to conventional biodegradation therefore adsorptions is an effective alternative for dyes removal treatment. Therefore a study has been conducted to find a cheap alternative method of treating textile waste water. In this study, the capability of activated carbon derived from coconut shell to adsorp malachite green dye was investigated. Three parameters were studied ie activated carbon with different chemicals impregnation and carbonization time, contact time and initial concentrations of dye. From the results acquired, 99.9% of malachite green dye was removed by the activated carbon impregnated with phosphoric acid solution of 5 minutes carbonization time. The optimum time contact and initial concentration of dye was 1 hour and 10 ppm respectively. Therefore, this result can contribute some knowledges using low cost raw material impregnation with some chemicals to remediate textile waste water.