Removal of Methyl Red from Waste Water using Orange Peels

The textile dye industry consumes the largest quantities of dye stuffs. A large amount of synthetic dye does not bind and is lost to the waste system during the coloring process. As these dyes come with high solubility, it is difficult to remove them from waste water with the help of conventional techniques. These dyes are designed to have high water solubility and hence they are transported through sewers and canals into water bodies like rivers and lakes easily. The effluent streams from these textile industries leads to serious water pollution problems. For separation of dyes from these effluent streams, adsorption technique is used in this study. Adsorption is a surface phenomenon in which the liquid phase solutes in gas or liquid phase are adsorbed on the surface of the adsorbents. Adsorption using natural adsorbents is more feasible and economical as the natural adsorbents are available in bulk and majorities are usually waste products. Adsorption can be done using two methods, primarily on lab scale, using lab apparatus such as beaker with constant stirring where the adsorbent and dye solutions are intimated for a specific period; secondly it can also be done in a packed bed in which packing is made up of the adsorbents. Adsorbent used in this study is Orange peels. The experiments were performed by altering various parameters such as adsorbent dosage, concentration of adsorbent solution, time of contact and keeping temperature constant. Adsorption is a low-cost waste water treatment process and is comparatively economical than advanced oxidation processes and filtration processes. The optimum adsorbent dosage was 4-5 grams in 100ml dye sample for time 60mins. Adsorption using orange peels has achieved up to 87% removal of methyl red as per the experimentation at 50ppm dye concentration. The equilibrium adsorption behavior was carried out by plotting Freundlich’s adsorption isotherm. Adsorption of Methyl Red dye on the orange peels is quite low but comparable to activated carbon.