Removal of Black Remazol in aqueous solution with activated carbons from corncobs based on the design of experiments methodology

Abstract

This study falls not only into the theme of water depollution but also and above all into the recovery of waste (logic of the 3 R: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). There was talk of recovering corncobs, which are considered as “agricultural waste” in developing countries such as Côte d’Ivoire. They were used as activated carbon to adsorb Black Remazol in a synthetic aqueous solution. This activated carbon obtained has a specific surface of 673.33 m²/g, a mass loss of 61.44 %, an iodine value of 168.31 mg.g-1 and a zero charge potential of 2.05. The design of experiments methodology was used on the one hand to detect the influential factors and on the other hand to optimize the elimination of this dye. Thus, in a first approach six factors (pH of the solution, mass of activated carbon, temperature, and concentration of the solution, stirring time and stirring speed) were used when using the Hadamard matrix. This showed that only three parameters, the mass of adsorbent, the concentration of the solution and the stirring time actually have an influence on the response. The results of the full two-level factorial design showed that the maximum removal rate of Black Remazol is 96.67 % under the conditions of stirring a solution with a concentration of 10 mg/L of this dye with a mass of adsorbent of 0.3 g for 20 minutes.

Keywords

• removal rate
• adsorption
• design of experiments
• agricultural waste
• remazol black