Removal of textile dye by adsortion on the cake as solid waste from the press-extraction of the macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata) kernel oil

Abstract

The textile industries face difficulties in removing dyes from the liquid effluent, even after what is thought to be conventional cleaning treatments. The use of adsorbents to retain dyes in textile effluents has been showing to be a simple and promisingly efficient method. The objective of this research was to test the macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata) kernel cake as adsorbent to remove Remazol Brilliant Blue dye in batch adsorption tests. The obtained adsorption kinetic data at equilibrium were modeled by assuming both the Langmuir and the Freundlich isotherms. The values were better fitted with the Langmuir model (R2 = 0.983), with a maximum adsorption capacity of 3.5 mg g-1 monolayer. This essay showed that the macaúba cake is an effective adsorbent to remove Remazol Brilliant Blue textile dye and it is a good alternative for treatment of textile liquid effluents.