RR2 dye adsorption to Hymenaea courbaril L. bark activated carbon associated with biofilm

This study addressed the removal performance of RR2 from aqueous solutions in adsorption columns experiments by comparing the potential of activated carbon alone (ACA) and microbially inoculated (MIAC), prepared from barks of a largely available tree in Brazilian Cerrado biome, Hymenaea courbaril L. or “Jatobá,” presenting the kinetics, isotherms, breakthrough curves, and dissolved organic carbon removal. ACA presented strong interaction to RR2 dye, evidenced at the first 20 min when absorbance already attained 66.4%. The removal percentage gradually increased with time and the equilibrium occurred around 91.7% within 120 min. Langmuir model best fitted the isotherm data, indicating a maximum adsorption capacity of 4.068 mg g −1 for the amount of 0.5 g of adsorbent. The Langmuir’s model parameters K L , R L , and R 2 corresponded to 0.0234 L mg −1 , 0.4159, and 0.9663, respectively, indicating a favorable adsorption process (0