Adsorption studies of packed bed column for the removal of dyes using amine functionalized radiation induced grafted fiber

In this paper, the adsorption performance of packed bed column with amine functionalized radiation-induced grafted fibers (AFF) for the removal of acid blue 80 (AB 80) was investigated. Pretreated banana fibers were grafted with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) with the assistance of electron beam irradiation and subsequently functionalized with imidazole, which was used as the precursor of anionic dye adsorption. The effect of flow rate, bed height and inlet concentration on the breakthrough curves were analyzed in terms of AFF adsorption performance. The experiment revealed that the increase in bed height and inlet concentration promoted the adsorption efficacy, whereas reduction was observed when the flow rate increased. The highest bed capacity obtained was 194.45 mg/g at adsorption condition of 5 ml/min flow rate, 100 mg/l inlet concentration and 50 mm of bed height. In order to determine the optimum operational parameters, the data were collected via the experiment fitted into Yoon and Nelson, and Thomas and Bed Depth Service Time (BDST) mathematical models. At various conditions, Thomas model closely defined the behaviors of the breakthrough curves. The maximum adsorption capacity calculated from Yoon-Nelson and Thomas models increased with the increase in flow rate and inlet concentration. However, a reduction was observed with the increase in bed height. Meanwhile, the BDST model exhibited good agreement with the experimental data as well as high correlation coefficient value r(2) similar to 0.99, which indicated the validity of BSDT model for the column adsorption system with AFF. The experimental results attained had suggested that developed AFF is quite effective as a biosorbent for the removal of the dyes.