The efficiency evaluation of activated carbon prepared from date stones for removal of methylene blue dye from aqueous solutions

Dyes are used in many industries. The discharge of colored wastewater and effluents from these industries to receiving water bodies could cause many significant problems such as increasing the toxicity and chemical oxygen demand (COD). So, these types of wastewater should be appropriately treated. The efficiencies of activated carbon derived from date stone in the removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions were assessed in this study. In this research that was an experimental study and was done in laboratory scale, the effects of different parameters such as initial pH (2-12), adsorbent dose (0.25-5 mg/L), initial dye concentration (50 -400 mg/L), and contact time (20-430 min) on methylene blue adsorption with activated carbon derived from date stone were evaluated. The reaction isotherm using the appropriate equations was also investigated. The results showed that dye adsorption with high efficiencies were obtained at pH 8. The evaluation of adsorption isotherm showed that laboratory data was best fit with Langmuir isotherm (R2= 0.998) and maximum adsorption capacity was obtained 478.3 mg/g. Based on the removal efficiency of used MB-concentrations in this study, we found that activated carbon derived from date stones could be applied as an efficient and inexpensive adsorbent in the removal of dyes from wastewater.