Research Article
Hilary I. Owamah, Osadolor
Abstract
The efficiency of modified cassava peels biomass for the removal of ultramarine blue (UB), has been thoroughly investigated in this study. The effect of changing absorbent concentration, UB concentration, contact time and pH had been studied. Maximum absorption occurred at pH of 10.There was a general increase in UB absorption with increase in absorbent concentration, UB concentration, time and temperature, respectively. The pseudo second order equation with R2 of 0.952, provided a better description of the adsorption process than the first order, showing that adsorption occurred mainly due to intra-particle diffusion. The Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms were applied to the equilibrium data. The adsorption capacity (Qm) obtained from the Langmuir isotherm was 0.952 (mg/g).The separation factor RL was obtained as 0.663 is less than unity, indicating that modified cassava peels biomass is a good absorbent for UB. The assessed thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of UB on modified cassava peels biomass was endothermic.