Insight into adsorption-desorption of methylene blue in water using zeolite NaY: Kinetic, isotherm and thermodynamic approaches

Abstract

It is critical to find an efficient method to separate methylene blue (MB) in wastewater before discharging them into environment. Adsorption using zeolites is the most commonly used one. To determine adsorption mechanism providing useful data to enhance adsorption capacity and practicability of scale-up, kinetic, isotherm and thermodynamic adsorption were evaluated and discussed intensely. Zeolite NaY was synthesized from rice husk ash with a one-stage process. Effects of pH, contact time, initial concentration, adsorbent dose, temperature, solvents and recyclic stability on MB adsorption and desorption were investigated in detail via alternating variable method. Optimal conditions for adsorption were at pH 8, 1 h, 50 mgMB/L, 303K. Adsorption kinetics and isotherms showed that the process fitted to pseudo-second-order, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm, indicating a spontaneous, exothermic and physical adsorption process with multilayer adsorption. Desorption process showed that EtOH:H2O (1:1) solvent at 323K was optimal for releasing MB and its thermodynamic studies revealed that this process was favorable with rising temperature. The maximum adsorption capacity was calculated as 49 mg/g and the adsorbent could maintain its adsorption performance after six cycles. Generally, this study provided a comprehensive approach of an efficient, cost-effective, and recyclable NaY for MB removal from water.

Keywords

• Adsorption-desorption
• Isotherms
• Kinetics
• Methylene blue
• Thermodynamics
• zeolite NaY