Agricultural based activated carbons for the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions: A review

This review evaluates a number of different agricultural waste adsorbents and types of dyes. Certain wastewater containing different dye contaminants causes serious environmental problems. Recently, growing research interest in the production of carbon based has been focused on agricultural by-products. Low cost adsorbents derived from agricultural wastes have demonstrated outstanding capabilities for the removal of dyes from wastewater. Therefore, low cost agricultural waste adsorbents can be viable alternatives to activated carbon for the treatment of contaminated wastewater. The use of cheap and eco-friendly adsorbents have been studied as an alternative substitution of activated carbon for the removal dyes from wastewater. The dye adsorption capacities of agricultural waste adsorbents vary, depending on the characteristics of the individual adsorbent, the extent of surface modification and the initial concentration of adsorbate. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.