Continuous fixed bed adsorption of methylene blue onto microwave-assisted palm shell based activated carbon

Continuous adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dye onto palm shell based activated carbon (PSAC) was conducted via fixed bed column. The produced PSAC was characterized through Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET). The breakthrough characteristics was studied by varying three operational parameters such as flow rate (5 and 10 mL/min), bed heights of PSAC (2-4 cm) and initial concentration (50-150 mg/L). The finding shows an encouraging effect on the removal of MB with a maximum bed capacity of 115.87 mg/g at feed flow rate of 10 mL/min, 4 cm of adsorbent bed height, and initial concentration of 100 mg/L. The breakthrough data was best correlated with the Yoon-Nelson model compared to Adam's-Bohart and Thomas model, which gives higher R2 values and low ARE values. The effective removal of MB via continuous mode shows that PSAC is suitable as an efficient alternative solution for dye wastewater treatment as a whole.