Removal of methylene blue dye using rice husk, cow dung and sludge biochar: characterization, application, and kinetic studies

Abstract The present studies aimed for the removal of Methylene blue (MB) dye using the rice husk biochar (RHB), cow dung biochar (CDB) and domestic sludge biochar (SB) synthesized through slow pyrolysis at 500°C. The biochar was used for the adsorption of synthetic aqueous MB dye. The removal efficiencies of MB by CDB, RHB and SB in a batch experiment were 97.0-99.0; 71.0-99.0 and 73.0-98.9 % at conditions, pH (2.0–11.0); Biochar dosage (0.5–6.0 g/100mL) for 5 days. Adsorption isotherm of Langmuir constant (KL) were obtained 0.101, 0.583 and 0.128 for RHB, CDB and SB respectively. Further, adsorption kinetics of pseudo first order for RHB, CDB and SB were 0.068, 0.018, and 0.066 while it was 0.031, 0.023 and 0.273 for pseudo second order kinetics. Thus, CDB was more effective adsorbent for the dye removal. The pHz values were 7.8, 6.3 and 6.0 for the CDB, RHB, and SB, respectively.