Enhanced removal of cationic dye by eco-friendly activated biochar derived from rice straw

This report deals with converting the agriculture waste (rice straw) to environmental cleaner materials (biochar) using airless pyrolysis followed by eco-friendly activation. The biochar (p-Biochar) obtained after pyrolysis step (poorly active material) was activated using wet attrition method to give m-Biochar (highly active materials). The both p-Biochar and m-Biochar were characterized in detail and utilized for MB and CV dye removal from aqueous solution. Various parameters affecting the adsorption process such as dye concentration, adsorbent dose, contact time, temperature, NaCl dose and pH were investigated. The adsorption isotherm was well fitted using Langmuir isotherm, and the maximum adsorption capacity is 90.91 and 44.64 mg/g, for MB and CV dyes, respectively. The contact time data obtained showed that the two dyes were poorly adsorbed over p-Biochar. The equilibrium was reached quickly in 15 min for MB dye and 20 min for CV dye using the m-Biochar, and removal percent was 94.45 and 92.70% for MB and CV dyes, respectively. Moreover, the kinetic isotherm presented very well fitted by pseudo-second-order model. In addition, the adsorption percent increases with further increasing the pH value. Finally, we observed that m-Biochar highly adsorbs the MB dye compared with the CV dye over all experimental conditions.