Adsorption studies on removal of Congo red dye from aqueous solution using petroleum coke

Present work attempted to decolorize the congo red dye wastewater using raw petroleum coke (RPC) and activated petroleum coke (APC) as an adsorbent. Petroleum coke contains 90% of carbon and it can be used as an adsorbent for the dye removal. Activation is done using KOH solution with different temperature and different concentration. The effect of operating parameters such as initial dye concentration, adsorbent dosage, temperature and pH has been studied on Congo red dye removal. Kinetics and Adsorption isotherm study were conducted for congo red dye removal. It is observed from the present experiment that, the APC has higher color removal efficiency than RPC. The adsorption process follows the pseudo second order kinetics and Freundlich adsorption isotherm is found that the data fit well with the higher correlation coefficient of 0.999.