Linear and Nonlinear Sorption Modelling for Adsorption of Atrazine onto Activated Peanut Husk

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the efficiency of chemically and thermally activated peanut husk (APNH) for removing atrazine from aqueous solutions. The prepared APNH was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Batch experiments were serially conducted to evaluate the effect of various parameters such as pH, dose of APNH, contact time, and interfering cations, anions and other agrochemicals. Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order models were fitted to the equilibrium and kinetic data, respectively. Linear and nonlinear regression methods were also compared while nonlinear regression performed better for analyzing experimental data for both kinetic and isotherm analysis. This study illustrates a practical relevance in exploring the potentiality of activated peanut husk/shell to remediate water pollution by simulating the several environmental factors which can govern the real scenarios. (C) 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers