Investigation of Simultaneous Removal of Reactive Orange 3R and Chromium from Aqueous Solutions Using Modified Carbon from Sycamore Wood

Today, heavy metals and organic compounds such as dyes are among the most dangerous pollutants that have entered surface and groundwater and threaten human health. The aim of this study was to investigate the removal of reactive orange 3R dye and chromium by adsorption separately and simultaneously activated carbon.

In this study, Sycamore carbon modified with NH4Cl was used to remove contaminants.  Effect of variables such as pH (2-9), adsorbent concentration (0.5-1-0 g/L), pollutant concentration (10-50 mg/L) and contact time (2-40 minutes) on dye and chromium removal (simultaneously and separately) were calculated. Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherm models and kinetics were also investigated.

The results of this study showed that activated carbon at pH = 4, 0.4 g/L adsorbent at 15 min contact time has the best removal conditions for both paint and chromium contaminants. Under optimal conditions, activated carbon was able to remove 72% of chromium and 84% of dye separately and 59% of chromium and 67% of dye simultaneously in solution at a concentration of 25 mg/L. The study of adsorption isotherms also showed that the experiments were more consistent with the Freundlich model.The absorption kinetics follows Pseudo-second order equations.

According to the results, this adsorbent has a good performance in separate and simultaneous removal of paint and chromium and can be used to treat wastewater containing organic and inorganic contaminants.