De-colorization of reactive dye effluent using cellulosic adsorbent

Bagasse fly, a waste from the sugar industry which helps to investigated as a replacement for the current expensive other chemicals for the removal of reactive dyes from aqueous solutions. In this study, the de-colorization of industrial textile wastewaters was treated with bagasse fly as low-cost adsorbent. Bagasse was collected from a local sugar factory in Ethiopia and from local consumers. It was dried in an oven at a given temperature or under sunlight and sieved to the get the particle size of 500 µm or smaller. The influence of some major parameters which govern the efficiency of the process such as solution pH, adsorbent dose, initial dye concentration, and contact time on the removal process were investigated. For satisfactory adsorption of dye on bagasse the dye solution either taken in test tube or beaker and bagasse fly ash were shaken continuously at room temperature (27±2ºC). The equilibrium adsorption data were analyzed by the Freundlich, Nernst and Langmuir adsorption isotherm models. It was found that the highest removal was obtained at 5.0 pH, for 48 hours of treatment time and with 40 g/l of bagasse concentration. The results of this investigation clearly suggest that bagasse, a low-cost agricultural waste abundant in Ethiopia, can be used in the removal of reactive dye present in the wastewater.