A Review On Applicability of Naturally Available Adsorbents PDF

Environ Monit Assess (2011) 183:151195
DOI 10.1007/s10661-011-1914-0
A review on applicability of naturally available adsorbents

for the removal of hazardous dyes from aqueous waste
Pankaj Sharma Harleen Kaur
Monika Sharma Vishal Sahore
Received: 29 March 2010 / Accepted: 27 January 2011 / Published online: 10 March 2011
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract The effluent water of many industries,

such as textiles, leather, paper, printing, cosmetics,
etc., contains large amount of hazardous dyes.
There is huge number of treatment processes as
well as adsorbent which are available for the
processing of this effluent water-containing dye
content. The applicability of naturally available
low cast and eco-friendly adsorbents, for the removal of hazardous dyes from aqueous waste by
adsorption treatment, has been reviewed. In this
review paper, we have provided a compiled list
of low-cost, easily available, safe to handle, and
easy-to-dispose-off adsorbents. These adsorbents
P. Sharma (B) H. Kaur

Department of Chemistry, Lovely School of Sciences,
Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144402,
Punjab, India
e-mail: sharmapankaj47@yahoo.com
P. Sharma
Energy and Environment Fusion Technology Center,
Department of Environmental Engineering
and Biotechnology, Myongji University, San 38-2,
Nam-dong, Cheoin-Gu, Yongin-Si 449-728,
Republic of Korea
M. Sharma
Department of Chemistry, Kurukshetra University,
Kurukshetra 136119, India
V. Sahore
Department of Microelectronics & Photonics,
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
have been classified into five different categories

on the basis of their state of availability: (1) waste
materials from agriculture and industry, (2) fruit
waste, (3) plant waste, (4) natural inorganic materials, and (5) bioadsorbents. Some of the treated
adsorbents have shown good adsorption capacities for methylene blue, congo red, crystal violet,
rhodamine B, basic red, etc., but this adsorption
process is highly pH dependent, and the pH of the
medium plays an important role in the treatment
process. Thus, in this review paper, we have made
some efforts to discuss the role of pH in the
treatment of wastewater.
Keywords Adsorption Low-cost adsorbents
Dyes Wastewater treatment Column studies
Introduction
With the discovery of the synthetic dyes, the things
began to change. Cheaper to produce, brighter,
more color-fast, and easy to apply to fabric are
some of the characteristic of these new dyes.
Scientists have competed to formulate gorgeous
new colors, and synthetic dyes had become obsolete for most applications. No doubt, this brightcolored material has changed the world; however,
the chemicals used to produce dyes are often
toxic, carcinogenic, or even explosive. Among the
different pollutants of aquatic ecosystem, dyes are
152
a major group of chemicals (Attia et al. 2008;

Namasivayam and Kavita 2002; Goyal et al. 2004;
Khattri and Singh 1998). Many industries like
textiles, leather, cosmetics, paper, printing, plastics, etc., use many synthetic dyes to color their
products. Thus, effluents from these industries
contain various kinds of synthetic dye stuffs. For
instance dyes used in the textile industries are
classified into three classes: (a) Anionic (direct,
acid, and reactive dyes), (b) Cationic (all basic
dyes), and (c) Non-ionic (dispersed dyes). Basic
and reactive dyes are extensively used in the textile industry because of their favorable characteristics of bright color, being easily water soluble,
cheaper to produce, and easier to apply to fabric
(Karadag et al. 2007; Karcher et al. 2002; Purkait
et al. 2005). Presence of color and color-causing
compounds has always been undesirable in water
for any use. It is, therefore, not at all surprising
to note that the color in wastewater has now been
considered as a pollutant that needs to be treated
before discharge. Thus, color removal is one of
the most difficult requirements to be faced by
the textile finishing, dye manufacturing, pulp and
paper industries, among others. These industries
are major water consumers and are, therefore,
a source of considerable pollution. In order to
implement an appropriate treatment process, it is
of utmost importance to minimize pollution, and
to do that, it is necessary to know its exact nature.
Robinson et al. (2001) made some good efforts
to give some collective information related to
current available technologies and have suggested
an effective, cheaper alternative for dye removal
and decolorization applicable on large scale. They
have also provided some important data related
to the desorption of individual textile dyes and
a synthetic dye effluent from dye-adsorbed agricultural residues using solvents (Robinson et al.
2002a, b, c), which is also important in designing
the adsorption treatment process.
Various physical and chemical techniques,
other than adsorption, like coagulation, chemical
oxidation, froth floatation, oxidation or ozonation, membrane separation, and solvent extraction processes have been used by a number of
researchers for the removal of organics as well as
inorganics from the wastewater; however, these
processes are effective and economic, only in the
case where the solute concentrations are relatively

high (Panswed and Wongchaisuwan 1986; Malik
and Saha 2003; Koch et al. 2002; Ciardelli et al.
2000; Gupta and Suhas 2009). Also, these treatments involve high operational cost and aerobic
digestion. For instance, photocatalytic degradation processes have shown considerable success
in the removal of organic dyes from wastewater
(Li et al. 2008; Pauporte and Rathousky 2007; Jain
et al. 2007; Marugan et al. 2007); however, there
have certain shortcomings. Coagulation process
produces large amount of sludge leading to high
disposal costs. Ion-exchange process has no loss
of adsorbent on regeneration; however, it cannot
accommodate wide range of dyes and is expensive.
Membrane separation process is also effective in
the removal of dyes; however, due to relatively
high investment and membrane fouling problem,
its application is restricted as there is a wide
range in pH of dyes and even the conventional
biological methods are not effective to treat dye
bearing wastewaters (Lakshmi et al. 2009). Adsorption has been found to be a superior technique as compared to other methods of waste
treatment in terms of cost, simplicity of design
and operation, availability, effectiveness, and their
insensitivity to toxic substances (Choy et al. 2000;
Namasivayam et al. 1996). The more recent methods for the removal of synthetic dyes from water and wastewater were complied and reported
in the form of review article by Forgacs et al.
(2004). The advantages and disadvantages of the
various methods were also discussed and their
efficacies were compared. Adsorption is a physiochemical wastewater treatment in which dissolved
molecules are attached to the surface of an adsorbent by physical/chemical forces. Depending
on the nature of the interactions ionic species
and molecular species carrying different functional groups may be held to the surface through
electrostatic attraction to sites of opposite charge
at the surface or physiosorbed due to action of
van der Waals forces or chemisorbed involving
strong adsorbateadsorbent bonding. So, it may
lead to attachment of adsorbate molecules at
specific functional group on adsorbent surface.
It is true that choice of adsorbent plays a very
important role (Sarma et al. 2008). This technique
is quite popular due to its simplicity as well as
the availability of a wide range of adsorbents,

and it proved to be an effective and attractive
process for the removal of non-biodegradable pollutants (including dyes) from wastewater (Han
et al. 2006; Aksu 2005). Most commercial systems
use activated carbon as adsorbent to remove dyes
in water because of its significant adsorption capacity. Although activated carbon is a preferred
adsorbent, its widespread use is restricted due to
its cost. In order to decrease the cost of treatment, some attempts have been made to find low
cost alternative adsorbents. Recently, numerous
studies have been conducted to develop cheaper
and effective adsorbents from a variety of starting
materials such as wheat bran carbon (Weng and
Pan 2006), sludge ash (Rozada et al. 2003), mango
seed kernel (Kumar and Kumrana 2005; Kumar
and Porkodi 2006), perlite and clay (Acemioglu

2005), sawdust (Shukla et al. 2002; Garg et al.
2004), sugarcane (Ho et al. 2005a), jute fiber
(Senthilkumaar et al. 2005), bagasse pith (McKay
et al. 1987), and carbons from agricultural wastes.
The effectiveness of a combined reduction
biological treatment system for the decolorization of non-biodegradable textile dyeing wastewater was investigated by Ghoreishi and Haghighi
(2003). In this treatment system, a bisulfitecatalyzed sodium borohydride reduction is followed by activated sludge technique in order to
remove the color at ambient temperature and
pressure, and this experimental study consisted
of two major parts: reduction treatment and biological oxidation. Joo et al. (2007) reported the
decolorization of reactive dyes using inorganic
coagulants and synthetic polymer, and they found
that the use of inorganic coagulant alone appeared
little effective in the removal of reactive dyes from
the real wastewater. However, alum/polymer and
ferric salt/polymer combinations improved color
removal up to 60% and 40%, respectively.
In this review, an extensive list of adsorbents
obtained from different sources has been compiled, and this review also reports the optimum
processing parameters for getting maximum dye
removal for effluent water. Main emphasis is on
the pH and initial dye concentration in the solution as these two parameter affects the adsorption
process more. The other objective to write this review paper is to make some comparisons between
153
the adsorbent capacity of chemically modified,

pretreated, and untreated adsorbents.
Low cost and easily available adsorbents

Keeping all the above points in view, our laboratories are contributing more towards the direction
of adsorption by cheap adsorbents. Cost is actually an important parameter for comparing the
adsorbent materials. Certain waste products from
industrial and agricultural operations, natural materials, and biosorbents represent potentially economical alternative sorbents. Many of them have
been tested and proposed for dye removal.
Waste materials from agriculture and industries
A number of agricultural wastes/by-products and
industrial waste products have been proposed by
a number of researchers for the dye removal
from aqueous wastewater (Namasivayam and
Kadirvelu 1994; Pala and Tokat 2002; Crini 2006).
These low-cost adsorbents are abundant in nature, inexpensive, require little processing, and are
effective for dye removal. The recently reported
adsorbents obtained from the industrial waste and
agricultural by products with their adsorption capacities (milligrams per gram) are tabulated in
Table 1.
Activated carbon
Activated carbon adsorption is one such method
which has great potential for the removal of dyes
from aqueous waste. The adsorption capacity of
activated carbon depends on various factors, such
as surface area, pore size distribution, and surface
functional groups on the adsorbent, polarity, solubility, and molecular size of the adsorbate, solution pH and the presence of other ions in solution,
and so on. The most widely used activated carbons
are microporous and have high surface areas, and
as a consequence, show high efficiency for the
adsorption of low molecular weight compounds
and for larger molecules. Zhi-yuan (2008) carried
out an adsorption study of methylene blue on
activated carbon fiber (ACF). It has been used in
adsorption systems including removal of noxious
154
Table 1 Reviewed results representing the adsorption capacity of agriculture and industrial waste materials for the
adsorption of dyes and their optimized pH values for maximum adsorption
Adsorbent
Dye
pH
Adsorption capacity
References
Rice husk
Activated carbon - RHC
Rice husk
Activated carbon
Activated carbon - RHS
Activated carbon - RHZ
Rice husk
Rice husk
Rice husk ash
Sugarcane bagasse
Sugarcane bagasse
Sugarcane bagasse
Activated carbon
Sugarcane bagasse
Sugarcane dust
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Fly ash SFA
Fly ash SFA
Fly ash CFA
Fly ash CFA
Fly ash CFA
Fly ash CFA
Fly ash CFA
Fly ash CFA
Cotton waste
Fly ash
Fly ash
Fly ash
Fly ash
Fly ash
Fly ash
Fly ash
Fly ash
Sludge ash
Sludge ash
Sludge ash
Activated carbon (sludge based)
Activated carbon (Chemviron GW)
Indigo carmine
Acid yellow 36
-picoline
Crystal violet
Crystal violet
Acid blue
Congo red
Safranine
Brilliant green
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methyl red
Acid orange 10
Basic violet 3
Basic green 4
Acid blue 80
Acid red 114
Acid yellow 117
Reactive blue 2
Reactive yellow 2
Reactive red 4
Methylene blue
Crystal violet
Rhodamine B
Methylene blue
Rhodamine B
Methylene blue
Rhodamine B
Egacid orange II
Egacid red G
Egacid yellow G
Midlon black VL
Basic blue
Acid orange 7
Acid yellow 23
Direct yellow 28
Basic yellow 28
Disperse blue 79
Pyridine
Brilliant green
Metomega chrome
Methylene blue
Reactive blue 2
Reactive yellow 2
Basic red 46
Acid brown 283
Direct red 89
Direct black
Basic red 46
Acid brown 283
Direct red 89
5.4
3.0
7.0
10.8
10.8
2.0
6.0
7.0
3.0
5.8
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
6.0
3.0
7.0
4.0
7.0
7.0
11.0
3.0
3.2
3.0
11.0
3.5
4.0
65.90 mg g1
86.90 mg g1
15.46 mg g1
64.80 mg g1
61.60 mg g1
55.40 mg g1
14.00 mg g1
178.10 mg g1
26.20 mg g1
34.20 mg g1
99.60 mg g1
54.60 mg g1
5.78 mg g1
3.79 mg g1
3.99 mg g1
112.30 mg g1
103.30 mg g1
155.80 mg g1
0.27 mmol g1
0.24 mmol g1
0.11 mmol g1
0.93 mmol g1
0.43 mmol g1
0.48 mmol g1
2.40 103 mol g1
0.60 103 mol g1
3.60 103 mol g1
1.00 103 mol g1
4.70 103 mol g1
2.20 103 mol g1
1.50 103 mol g1
3.10 103 mol g1
277.00 mg g1
4.00 g g1
23.90 g g1
816.00 g g1
288.00 g g1
0.06 g g1
31.06 mg g1
65.9 mg g1
742.80 g g1
3.5 106 mol g1
250.00 mg g1
333.30 mg g1
188.00 mg g1
20.50 mg g1
49.20 mg g1
28.90 mg g1
106.00 mg g1
22.00 mg g1
8.40 mg g1
Lakshmi et al. (2009)

Malik (2003)
Lataye et al. (2009)
Mohanty et al. (2006)
Mohanty et al. (2006)
Mohamed (2004)
Han et al. (2008)
Kumar and Sivanesan (2007)
Mane et al. (2007a)
Filho et al. (2007)
Raghuvanshi et al. (2004)
Azhar et al. (2005)
Tsai et al. (2001)
Khattri and Singh (2000)
Khattri and Singh (1999)
Choy et al. (2000)
Choy et al. (2000)
Choy et al. (2000)
Al-Degs et al. (2008)
Wang and Zhu (2007)
Wang and Zhu (2007)
Wang and Zhu (2007)
Jano et al. (2003)
Jano et al. (2003)
Jano et al. (2003)
Jano et al. (2003)
Jano et al. (2003)
Jano et al. (2003)
Jano et al. (2003)
Jano et al. (2003)
McKay et al. (1999)
Albanis et al. (2000)
Lataye et al. (2006)
Mane et al. (2007b)
Gupta and Shukla (1996)
Weng and Pan (2006)
Aksu (2001)
Aksu (2001)
Martin et al. (2003)
155
Table 1 (continued)
Adsorbent
Sugar industry mud
Activated carbon (oil palm shell)
Granular activated carbon
Granular activated carbon
Silkworm pupa
Silkworm pupa
Activated carbon W20
Activated carbon W20N
Activated carbon
(coconut tree flower)
Activated carbon (Jute fiber)
Activated carbon (rice husk)
Metal hydroxide sludge
Activated carbon (newspaper)
Powdered activated sludge
Charfines
Lignite coal
Bituminous coal
Activated carbon
Activated carbon (Cassava peel,
physical 700 C)
physical 700 C)
physical 700 C)
chemical H3 PO4 )
chemical H3 PO4 )
chemical H3 PO4 )
Activated carbon (bagasses)
Activated carbon (beds)
Activated carbon fiber (pitch)
Dye
pH
Direct black
Basic red 22
Methylene blue
Basic blue 4
Basic red 18
Basic blue 4
Basic red 18
Bisphenyl A
Bisphenyl A
Reactive red
3.0
7.0
6.5
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
9.0
8.0
6.1
Reactive red
Malachite green
Reactive red 2
Reactive red 120
Reactive red 141
Methylene blue
Direct yellow 12
Direct brown
Direct brown
Direct brown
Direct brown
Rodamine B
Direct brown
Procion orange
Acid violet
Malachite green
Methylene blue
Rodamine B
Direct brown
Procion orange
Acid violet
Malachite green
Methylene blue
Basic red 22
Acid blue 25
Yellow dye
Acid blue 9
Acid blue 74
Acid orange 10
Acid orange 51
Direct black 19
Direct yellow 11
Direct yellow 50
Basic brown 1
Basic yellow
6.1
10.2
8.6
8.6
8.6
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
5.6
6.9
6.7
6.8
6.8
6.8
7.5
8.3
8.3
8.4
8.3
8.2
4.1
5.9
7.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
Adsorption capacity
g1
References
18.70 mg
519.00 mg g1
243.90 mg g1
58.82 mmol g1
116.27 mmol g1
6.33 mmol g1
0.42 mmol g1
392.00 mg g1
438.00 mg g1
181.90 mg g1

Magdy and Daifullah (1998)
Tan et al. (2008)
Noroozi et al. (2008)
Liu et al. (2009)
Liu et al. (2009)
Senthilkumaar et al. (2006)
200.00 mg g1
1.49 mmol g1
61.73 mg g1
45.87 mg g1
51.55 mg g1
390.00 mg g1
98.00 mg g1
6.40 mg g1
4.10 mg g1
2.04 mg g1
7.69 mg g1
100%
10.4%
5.3%
83.0%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
86.3%
100%
100%
608.00 mg g1
548.00 mg g1
551.00 mg g1
5.0 104 mol g1
9.0 104 mol g1
8.0 104 mol g1
1.8 104 mol g1
1.1 104 mol g1
1.8 104 mol g1
2.2 104 mol g1
1.4 103 mol g1
2.2 103 mol g1
Senthilkumaar et al. (2006)

Guo et al. (2003)
Netpradit et al. (2004a)
Okada et al. (2003)
Kargi and Ozmhc (2004)
Mohan et al. (2002b)
Rajeshwarisivaraj et al. (2001)
Juang et al. (2002a)
Juang et al. (2002a)
Chern and Wu (2001)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
Tamai et al. (1999)
156
Table 1 (continued)
Adsorbent
Waste Fe(III)/Cr(III) hydroxide
Activated carbon (filtrasorb 400)
Dye
Fe(III)/Cr(III) hydroxide
Congo red
Ramazol reactive
yellow
Ramazol reactive
black
Ramazol reactive
red
Crystal violet
Indigo carmine
Crystal violet
Indigo carmine
Crystal violet
Indigo carmine
Basic red
Basic red
Reactive red 141
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Basic blue 69
Acid blue 264
Methylene blue
Basic blue 69
Acid blue 264
Methylene blue
Basic blue 69
Acid blue 264
Methylene blue
Remazol red
Remazol black B
Remazol red
Remazol black B
Acid blue 80
Acid blue 80
Acid blue 80
Acid blue 80
Acid blue 80
Acid blue 80
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Basic blue 41
Omega chrome
red ME
Direct red 12b
Fe(III)/Cr(III) hydroxide
Methylene blue
Corncob
Dye mixture

Sewage sludge ASSg1
Sewage sludge ASSg1
Sewage sludge ASSg2
Sewage sludge ASSg2
Sewage sludge PSSg2
Sewage sludge PSSg2
Waste carbon slurries
Blast furnace slag
Fly ash
Sewage sludge Ud
Sewage sludge Ad
Sewage sludge Up
Sewage sludge Ap
Sewage sludge Ua
Sewage sludge Aa
Activated carbon (pinewood) AC1.5 h
Wheat straw
Wheat straw
Corn-cob shreds
Corn-cob shreds
Activated carbon CC-1
Parthenium hysterophorus - SWC
Parthenium hysterophorus - PWC
Linseed oil cake
Fly ash: coal
pH
Adsorption capacity
g1
References
3.0
5.7
44.00 mg
1111.00 mg g1
Namasivayam et al. (1994)

5.7
434.00 mg g1
5.7
400.00 mg g1
263.20 mg g1
60.00 mg g1
270.90 mg g1
54.40 mg g1
184.70 mg g1
30.80 mg g1
10.2 105 mol g1
1.11 105 mol g1
45.00 mg g1
3.47 mmol kg1
114.90 mg g1
87.00 mg g1
31.70 mg g1
28.70 mg g1
24.90 mg g1
28.30 mg g1
598.00 mg g1
983.00 mg g1
484.00 mg g1
761.00 mg g1
1014.00 mg g1
507.00 mg g1
1119.00 mg g1
1176.00 mg g1
556.00 mg g1
2.50 mg g1
2.10 mg g1
0.60 mg g1
0.60 mg g1
333.30 mg g1
59.90 mg g1
75.20 mg g1
169.50 mg g1
277.80 mg g1
384.60 mg g1
39.70 mg g1
88.50 mg g1
303.10 mg g1
0.77 mg g1
Otero et al. (2003a)

Gupta et al. (2003)
Gupta et al. (2003)
Netpradit et al. (2004b)
Woolard et al. (2002)
Otero et al. (2003b)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Tseng et al. (2003)
Nigam et al. (2000)
Nigam et al. (2000)
Nigam et al. (2000)
Nigam et al. (2000)
Valix et al. (2004)
Valix et al. (2004)
Valix et al. (2004)
Valix et al. (2004)
Valix et al. (2004)
Valix et al. (2004)
Lata et al. (2007)
Lata et al. (2007)
Liversidge et al. (1997)
Gupta et al. (1990)
3.0
5.00 mg g1
10.0
10.00 mg g1
7.0
4.60 mg g1
Namasivayam and
Sumithra (2005)
Namasivayam and
Sumithra (2005)
Robinson et al. (2002b)
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
2.0
10.0
8.5
5.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.0
7.0
7.0
2.0
157
Table 1 (continued)
Adsorbent
Dye
pH
Adsorption capacity
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
11.1
1.5
11.0
g1
Barley husk
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated carbon
Activated sludge
Activated sludge
White ash
Pellet adsorbent
White ash
Pellet adsorbent
Coir pith carbon
Coir pith carbon
Slag
Dye mixture
Acid red 114
Polar yellow
Polar blue RAWL
Basic red 18
Basic blue 9
Congo red
Congo red
Congo red
Congo red
Rhodamine B
Acid violet
Basic blue 9
8.30 mg
101.00 mg g1
128.80 mg g1
100.90 mg g1
285.70 mg g1
256.40 mg g1
171.00 mg g1
31.70 mg g1
171.00 mg g1
31.70 mg g1
2.56 mg g1
8.06 mg g1
9.95 mg g1
Slag
Acid blue 29
2.0
4.86 mg g1
Slag
Acid red 91
7.0
2.36 mg g1
Slag
Disperse red 1
2.0
33.20 mg g1
Carbonaceous adsorbent
Silk cotton carbon
Silk cotton carbon
Silk cotton carbon
Silk cotton carbon
Silk cotton carbon
Coconut tree sawdust carbon
Maize cob carbon
Maize cob carbon
Maize cob carbon
Maize cob carbon
Maize cob carbon
Banana pith carbon
Banana pith carbon
Banana pith carbon
Banana pith carbon
Banana pith carbon
Wheat straw
Wheat straw
Sunflower oil cake AC1
Activated carbon (almond shell)
Activated carbon (apricot stone)
Activated carbon (hazelnut shell)
Activated carbon (walnut shell)
Ethyl orange
Methylene yellow
Acid blue 113
Rhodamine B
Congo red
Methylene blue
Methyl violet
Malachite green
Rhodamine B
Congo red
Methylene blue
Methyl violet
Malachite green
Rhodamine B
Congo red
Methylene blue
Methyl violet
Malachite green
Rhodamine B
Congo red
Methylene blue
Methyl violet
Malachite green
Methylene blue
Citric acid
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
7.0
7.0
7.0
6.1
6.7
5.1
5.0
4.9
3.2
3.5
3.6
3.9
3.3
3.2
5.0
4.0
4.3
2.1
3.2
5.0
4.0
4.3
4.1
7.0
7.0
6.0
6.0
6.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
198.40 mg g1
211.90 mg g1
221.20 mg g1
70.00 mg g1
250.00 mg g1
120.00 mg g1
225.00 mg g1
222.50 mg g1
247.50 mg g1
239.00 mg g1
225.50 mg g1
240.00 mg g1
225.00 mg g1
206.60 mg g1
191.40 mg g1
233.40 mg g1
93.60 mg g1
120.50 mg g1
206.60 mg g1
191.40 mg g1
233.40 mg g1
93.60 mg g1
120.50 mg g1
312.50 mg g1
227.27 mg g1
10.21 mg g1
16.43 mg g1
15.80 mg g1
1.33 mg g1
4.11 mg g1
8.82 mg g1
3.53 mg g1
References
Robinson et al. (2002b)
Choy et al. (1999)
Choy et al. (1999)
Choy et al. (1999)
Gulnaz et al. (2004)
Gulnaz et al. (2004)
Chou et al. (2001)
Chou et al. (2001)
Chou et al. (2001)
Chou et al. (2001)
Namasivayam et al. (2001a)
Namasivayam et al. (2001a)
Ramakrishna and
Viraraghavan (1997)
Ramakrishna and
Viraraghavan (1997)
Ramakrishna and
Viraraghavan (1997)
Ramakrishna and
Viraraghavan (1997)
Jain et al. (2003)
Jain et al. (2003)
Jain et al. (2003)
Kadirvelu et al. (2003)
Gong et al. (2008)
Gong et al. (2008)
Karagz et al. (2008)
Aygn et al. (2003)
Aygn et al. (2003)
Aygn et al. (2003)
Aygn et al. (2003)
158
Table 1 (continued)
Adsorbent
Bark
Rice husk
Cotton waste
Hair
Coal
Bark
Rice husk
Cotton waste
Hair
Coal
Core pith
Core pith
Core pith
Activated carbon fibers
Rice husk
Cotton waste
Hair
Coal
Bark
Rice husk
Cotton waste
Hair
Coal
Sugarcane dust
Sugarcane dust
Sugarcane dust
Cotton
Calcium rich - fly ash
Activated carbon (sewage sludge)
Activated carbon (sewage sludge)
Commercial activated carbon
Bamboo dust carbon
Coconut shell carbon
Groundnut shell carbon
Rice husk carbon
Straw carbon
Sugarcane baggase
Activated sugarcane baggase
Lignin (sugarcane baggase)
Activated carbon PKN2
Dye
Reactive red 2
Reactive red 120
Reactive red 141
Safranine
Safranine
Safranine
Safranine
Safranine
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Acid violet
Acid brilliant blue
Rhodamine B
Acid blue
Methylene blue
Safranine
Safranine
Safranine
Safranine
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Basic violet 10
Basic violet 1
Basic green 4
Acid blue
Direct red 28
Congo red
Methylene blue
Saphranine
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Acid blue 74
Basic brown 1
Methylene blue
Acid blue 74
Basic brown 1
Methylene blue
Acid blue 74
pH
8.5
8.5
8.5
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
2.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
2.0
7.0
5.0
7.0
7.0
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.0
7.0
4.5
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
Adsorption capacity
g1
62.50 mg
48.30 mg g1
56.20 mg g1
1119.00 mg g1
838.00 mg g1
875.00 mg g1
190.00 mg g1
120.00 mg g1
914.00 mg g1
312.00 mg g1
270.00 mg g1
158.00 mg g1
250.00 mg g1
1.60 mg g1
16.60 mg g1
203.20 mg g1
50.00 mg g1
99.30 mg g1
838.00 mg g1
875.00 mg g1
190.00 mg g1
120.00 mg g1
914.00 mg g1
312.00 mg g1
270.00 mg g1
158.00 mg g1
250.00 mg g1
50.4 mg g1
13.9 mg g1
20.6 mg g1
50.00 mg g1
1 102 kg1
4.47 105 mol g1
6.08 mg g1
11.05 mg g1
980.30 mg g1
143.20 mg g1
277.90 mg g1
164.90 mg g1
343.50 mg g1
472.10 mg g1
96.56 mg g1
99.63 mg g1
16.50 mg g1
765.00 mg g1
549.00 mg g1
1453.00 mg g1
785.00 mg g1
561.00 mg g1
1529.00 mg g1
828.00 mg g1
567.00 mg g1
References
Netpradit et al. (2003)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
Namasivayam et al. (2001b)
Mohamed (2004)
Zhi-yuan (2008)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1999)
Ho et al. (2005a)
Ho et al. (2005a)
Ho et al. (2005a)
Mohamed (2004)
Sawada and Ueda (2003)
(2004)
Acemioglu
Rozada et al. (2003)
Rozada et al. (2003)
Kannan and Sundaram (2001)
Filho et al. (2007)
Tseng (2007)
Tseng (2007)
Tseng (2007)
Tseng (2007)
Tseng (2007)
Tseng (2007)
Tseng (2007)
Tseng (2007)
159
Table 1 (continued)
Adsorbent
Activated carbon (oil palm wood)
Activated carbon C1
Activated carbon C2
Activated carbon C3
Activated carbon C4
Activated carbon C5
Activated carbon C6
Activated carbon
Rice husk
Wheat bran carbon
I-GLYTAC-Cotton
I-GLYTAC-Cotton
I-GLYTAC-Cotton
II-GLYTAC-Cotton
II-GLYTAC-Cotton
II-GLYTAC-Cotton
III-GLYTAC-Cotton
III-GLYTAC-Cotton
III-GLYTAC-Cotton
IV-GLYTAC-Cotton
IV-GLYTAC-Cotton
IV-GLYTAC-Cotton
V-GLYTAC-Cotton
V-GLYTAC-Cotton
V-GLYTAC-Cotton
Porous carbon
Dye
Basic brown 1
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Rhodamine B
Rhodamine B
Methylene blue
Acid blue 25
Acid yellow 99
Reactive yellow 23
Acid blue 25
Acid yellow 99
Reactive yellow 23
Acid blue 25
Acid yellow 99
Reactive yellow 23
Acid blue 25
Acid yellow 99
Reactive yellow 23
Acid blue 25
Acid yellow 99
Reactive yellow 23
Rhodamine B
gases because of its extensive specific surface

area, high adsorption capacity, well-developed micropores, reproducibility, and processability. The
effects of various experimental parameters, such
as the initial methylene blue (MB) concentration and the ACF mass, on the adsorption rates
were investigated. Equilibrium data was fit well
by a Freundlich isotherm equation. Adsorption
measurement shows that the process is very fast.
Moreover, thermodynamic parameters Go , So ,
and H o were calculated (Wang and Zhu 2007).
Nakagawa et al. (2004) made attempt to evaluate the porous properties and hydrophobicity
of activated carbons obtained from several solid
wastes, namely, waste PET, waste tires, refuse
derived fuel, and wastes generated during lactic
acid fermentation from garbage. Activated carbons having various pore size distributions were
obtained by the conventional steam-activation
method and via the pretreatment method (i.e.,
mixture of raw materials with a metal salt, car-
pH
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
2.1
2.1
2.5
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
3.45
Adsorption capacity
g1
1845.00 mg
90.9 mg g1
198.00 mg g1
309.00 mg g1
362.00 mg g1
412.00 mg g1
306.00 mg g1
316.00 mg g1
5.34 105 mg g1
5.87 105 mg g1
222.20 mg g1
0.26 mmol g1
0.18 mmol g1
0.19 mmol g1
0.60 mmol g1
0.39 mmol g1
0.39 mmol g1
0.64 mmol g1
0.41 mmol g1
0.41 mmol g1
0.59 mmol g1
0.37 mmol g1
0.37 mmol g1
0.59 mmol g1
0.36 mmol g1
0.36 mmol g1
0.90 mmol g1
References
Tseng (2007)
Ahmad et al. (2007)
Attia et al. (2008)
Attia et al. (2008)
Attia et al. (2008)
Attia et al. (2008)
Attia et al. (2008)
Attia et al. (2008)
Jain et al. (2007)
Jain et al. (2007)
zer and Dursun (2007)
Bouzaida and Rammah (2002)
Guo et al. (2005)
bonization, and acid treatment prior to steam

activation). The liquid-phase adsorption characteristics of organic compounds from aqueous solution on the activated carbons were determined to
confirm the applicability of these carbons, where
reactive dye, Black5, were employed as representative adsorbates. Authors reported that the
activated carbons with plentiful mesopores prepared from PET and waste tires had quite high
adsorption capacity for large molecules. Therefore, they are useful for wastewater treatment,
especially for removal of bulky adsorbates. Li
et al. (2002) reported the displacement of atrazine
by the strongly competing fraction of natural
organic matter (NOM) in batch and continuousflow powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorption system. The extent of atrazine displacement
by NOM was found to be dependent on the type
of PAC, while the rate of displacement was a
function of PAC type as well as carbon dose.
Choy et al. (2000) reported the adsorption of
160
three acidic dyes, Acid Blue 80 (AB80), Acid

Red 114 (AR114), and Acid Yellow 117 (AY117)
onto activated carbon. In the same paper, they
have also reported the adsorption isotherms for
the three single components (AB80, AR114, and
AY117) and three binary component (AB80 +
AR114, AB80 + AY117, and AR114 + AY117),
dyes adsorption on activated carbon. Four models for predicting the multicomponent equilibrium
sorption isotherms have been compared in order to determine the best to predict or correlate binary adsorption data. These four models
are the extended Langmuir isotherm, the simplified model based on single-component equilibrium factors, a modified extended Langmuir
isotherm with a constant interaction factor, and
a modified extended Langmuir isotherm incorporating a surface coverage-dependent interaction
factor. Adsorption of trichloroethylene (TCE) by
two ACFs and two granular activated carbons preloaded with hydrophobic and transphilic fractions
of NOM was examined by Tanju Karanfil et al.
(2006) ACF10. The most microporous activated
carbon used in this study had over 90% of its
pore volume in pores smaller than 10 . It also
had the highest volume in pores 58 , which is
the optimum pore size region for TCE adsorption,
among the four activated carbons. Adsorption of
NOM fractions by ACF10 was, in general, negligible. Therefore, ACF10, functioning as a molecular sieve during preloading, exhibited the least
NOM uptake for each fraction, and subsequently
the highest TCE adsorption. The other three sorbents had wider pore size distributions, including
high volumes in pores larger than 10 , where
NOM molecules can be adsorbed. As a result, they
showed higher adsorption efficiency for all NOM
fractions, and subsequently lower adsorption capacities for TCE, as compared to ACF10.
Adsorption of congo red (CR) dye on bituminous coal-based mesoporous activated carbon
(AC) from aqueous solutions was reported by
Grabowska and Gryglewicz (2007). The mesopore
contribution to the total pore volume ranged from
52% to 83%. The adsorption tests were performed
under static conditions at solution pH 7.88.3.It
was found that the higher the fraction of mesopores with a size between 10 and 50 nm, the
shorter the time to achieve the equilibrium stage
for CR adsorption. The kinetics of adsorption

in view of three kinetic models, i.e., the firstorder Lagergren model, the pseudo-second-order
model, and the intraparticle diffusion model,
was discussed. The pseudo-second-order kinetic
model describes the adsorption of CR on mesoporous activated carbon very well. The correlation coefficients ranged from 0.980 to 0.991. The
intra-particle diffusion into small mesopores was
found to be the rate-limiting step in the adsorption
process. The equilibrium adsorption data were interpreted using Langmuir and Freundlich models.
The adsorption of CR was better represented by
the Langmuir equation. The monolayer adsorption capacity of ACs was found to increase with
increasing both the mesopore volume and the
mesopore contribution to their porous texture.
The effect of solution ionic strength on the uptake of CR by two different mesoporous carbons was also investigated. Also, the kinetics and
mechanism of MB adsorption on commercially
activated carbon and indigenously prepared activated carbons from bamboo dust, coconut shell,
groundnut shell, rice husk, and straw have been
reported by the Kannan and Sundaram (2001).
The effects of various experimental parameters
have been investigated using a batch adsorption technique to obtain information on treating
effluents from the dye industry. The extent of
dye removal increased with decrease in the initial concentration of the dye and particle size of
the adsorbent and also increased with increase
in contact time, amount of adsorbent used and
the initial pH of the solution. Adsorption data
were modeled using the Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms and first-order kinetic
equations. The kinetics of adsorption was found
to be first order with regard to intra-particle
diffusion rate. The adsorption capacities of indigenous activated carbons have been compared
with that of the commercially activated carbon.
The results indicate that such carbons could be
employed as the low-cost alternatives to commercially activated carbon in wastewater treatment for the removal of color and dyes. Jirankova
et al. (2007) contribution deals with study of the
combined adsorption-membrane process for organic dye removal. Adsorption equilibrium and
kinetics of Egacid red sorption on PAC were stud-
ied in batch experiments. During the combined

hollow fiber membrane microfiltration operated
in dead-end mode, it was found that membrane
was effective for removal of PAC particles from
water suspensions and PAC tendency for irreversible membrane fouling was extremely low.
The presented combined adsorption-membrane
process has a potential application for organic
dye removal. Tapered bed adsorption columns,
using activated carbon, have been used to study
the removal of two organic pollutants, an acid
dye and para-chlorophenol, from aqueous effluent
by McKay et al. (2008). Equilibrium sorption
isotherms were measured to provide the saturation capacity (qe ) of each pollutant by Chemviron
Filtrasorb 400 carbon, for operating continuous
adsorption columns. The RedlichPeterson (R
P) isotherm gives the best fit model to describe
the sorption process of these organic pollutants.
The conventional bed depth service time (BDST)
model has not been applied to tapered beds before, as the linear velocity of fluid is continually
changing along the column. Several others authors
(Al-Degs et al. 2008; Wang and Zhu 2007; Nassar
and Magdy 1997) have also tested activated carbon for the adsorption of various dyes.
Pereira et al. (2003) reported that the surface chemistry of a commercially activated carbon
has been selectively modified, without changing
significantly its textural properties, by means of
chemical treatments, using HNO3 , H2 O2 , NH3 ,
and thermal treatments under a flow of H2 or
N2 , and they found that the surface chemistry of
the activated carbon plays a key role in dye adsorption performance. The basic sample obtained
by thermal treatment under H2 flow at 700 C is
the best material for the adsorption of most of
the dyes tested. For anionic dyes (reactive, direct,
and acid), a close relationship between the surface
basicity of the adsorbents and dye adsorption is
shown, the interaction between the oxygen-free
Lewis basic sites and the free electrons of the
dye molecule being the main adsorption mechanism. For cationic dyes (basic), the acid oxygencontaining surface groups show a positive effect
but thermally treated samples still present good
performances, showing the existence of two parallel adsorption mechanisms involving electrostatic
and dispersive interactions. The conclusions ob-
161
tained for each dye individually were confirmed

in the color removal from a real textile process
effluent.
Rice husk/rice husk ash
Rice husk is insoluble in water, has good chemical stability, high mechanical strength, and possesses a granular structure, making it a good
adsorbent material. Rice husk consists of cellulose (32.24%), hemicelluloses (21.34%), lignin
(21.44%), and mineral ash (15.05%) and high
percentage of silica in its mineral ash, which is
approximately 96.34%. Pretreatment of rice husk
can remove lignin and hemicelluloses, decrease
cellulose crystallinity, and increase the porosity
and surface area. Rice husk can easily be converted into rice husk ash (RHA) at 300 C which
contains 92% to 95% silica. The adsorbent obtained by this treatment is light weight with a
very external surface area. Lakshmi et al. (2009)
carried out study of the adsorptive characteristics
of Indigo Carmine (IC) dye from aqueous solution onto RHA. Batch experiments were carried
out to determine the influence of parameters like
initial pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, and initial dye concentration on the removal of IC. The
optimum conditions were found to be: pH = 5.4,
t = 8 h, and m = 10.0 g L1 . The pseudo-secondorder kinetic model represented the adsorption
kinetics of IC on to RHA. Equilibrium isotherms
were analyzed by Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin,
and Redliche Peterson models using a nonlinear
regression technique. Adsorption of IC on RHA
was favorably influenced by an increase in the
temperature of the operation. The positive values
of the change in entropy (So ) and heat of adsorption (H o ); and the negative value of change
in Gibbs free energy (Go ) indicate feasible and
spontaneous adsorption of IC on to RHA.
Adsorption onto activated carbon is a potent
method for the treatment of dye-bearing effluents
because it offers various advantages as reported
by Mohanty et al. (2006). In this study, activated
carbons, prepared from low-cost rice husk by
two different processes: physical activation and
chemical activation, were used as the adsorbent
for the removal of crystal violet. The effects of
various experimental parameters, such as adsor-
162
bent dosage and size, initial dye concentration,

pH, contact time, and temperature, were investigated in batch mode. The kinetic data were well
fitted to the Lagergren, pseudo-second order, and
intra-particle diffusion models. It was found that
intra-particle diffusion plays a significant role in
the adsorption mechanism. The isothermal data
could be well described by the Langmuir and
Freundlich equations. The maximum uptakes of
crystal violet by sulfuric acid activated (RHS) and
zinc chloride activated (RHZ) rice husk carbon
were found to be 64.875 and 61.575 mg g1 of
adsorbent, respectively. The results indicate that
RHS and RHZ could be employed as low-cost
alternatives to commercially activated carbon in
wastewater treatment for the removal of basic
dyes. It has been reported in one of the papers
by Dhalan et al. (2006) that the materials, such as
RHA, have the potential to be utilized as highperformance sorbents for the flue gas desulfurization process in small-scale industrial boilers.
This study presents findings on identifying the key
factor for high desulfurization activity in sorbents
prepared from RHA. Initially, a systematic approach using central composite rotatable design
was used to develop a mathematical model that
correlates the sorbent preparation variables to
the desulfurization activity of the sorbent. Han
et al. (2008) reported a continuous bed study by
using rice husk as a biosorbent for the removal
of CR from aqueous solution. The effects of important factors, such as the value of pH, existing
salt, the flow rate, the influent concentration of
CR, and bed depth, were studied. Data confirmed
that the breakthrough curves were dependent
on flow rate, initial dye concentration, and the
bed depth. Thomas, AdamsBohart, and Yoon
Nelson models were applied to the experimental
data in order to predict the breakthrough curves
using nonlinear regression and to determine the
characteristic parameters of the column useful for
process design, while BDST model was used to
express the effect of bed depth on breakthrough
curves. The results showed that Thomas model
was found suitable for the normal description of
breakthrough curve at the experimental condition, while AdamsBohart model was only for
an initial part of dynamic behavior of the rice
husk column. The data were in good agreement
with BDST model. It was concluded that the rice

husk column can remove CR from solution (Malik
2003; McKay et al. 1999; Mohamed 2004; Han
et al. 2008; Guo et al. 2005; Kumar and Sivanesan
2007; Mane et al. 2007a).
Sugarcane dust
The adsorption potential of agricultural (sugarcane) by-product, the baggase was investigated
in batch experiments with two different forms
i.e., raw and chemically activated forms, for the
removal of MB dye, with different parameters like
dye concentration, contact time, temperature, and
adsorbent dose is reported by Raghuvanshi et al.
(2004). The removal is better and more effective
with chemically activated baggase in comparison
to the raw baggase. An average percent removal
difference between the two adsorbents of around
18% was achieved under the different experimental conditions. The data fit well in the Freundlich
isotherm. Azhar et al. (2005) in one of his papers has reported that adsorbents prepared from
sugarcane baggase-an agro industries waste were
successfully used to remove the methyl red from
an aqueous solution in a batch reactor. This study
investigates the potential use of sugarcane baggase, pretreated with formaldehyde (PCSB) and
sulfuric acid (PCSBC), for the removal of methyl
red from simulated wastewater. Formaldehydetreated and sulfuric acid-treated sugarcane baggase were used to adsorb methyl red at varying
dye concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, and
contact time (Tsai et al. 2001). Similar experiment
was conducted with commercially available PAC,
in order to evaluate the performance of PCSB and
PCSBC. The adsorption efficiency of different adsorbents was in the order PAC>PCSBC>PCSB.
The initial pH of 610 flavors the adsorption of
both PCSB and PCSBC. Adsorbents are very
efficient in decolorized diluted solution. It is proposed that PCSB and PCSBC, in a batch or stirred
tank reactors, could be employed as a low-cost
alternative in wastewater treatment for the dye
removal.
Filho et al. (2007) carried out an experiment in
which the adsorption kinetics and equilibrium of
MB onto reticulated formic lignin from sugar cane
baggase was studied. The adsorption process is
pH, temperature, and ionic strength () dependent

and obeys the Langmuir model. Conditions for
higher adsorption rate and capacity were determined. The faster adsorption (12 h) and higher
adsorption capacity (34.20 mg g1 ) were observed
at pH = 5.8 (acetic acid-sodium acetate aqueous buffer), 50 C, and 0.1 ionic strength. These
interactions between binding sites were detected
through Scatchard analysis. Under temperature
(50 C) control and occasional mechanical stirring,
it took from 1 to 10 days to reach equilibrium
(Khattri and Singh 1999). The sorption of three
basic dyes, named basic violet 10, basic violet 1,
and basic green 4, from aqueous solutions onto
sugarcane dust was studied by Ho et al. (2001).
The results revealed the potential of sugarcane
dust, a waste material, to be a low-cost sorbent.
Equilibrium isotherms were analyzed using the
Langmuir, Freundlich, and the three-parameter
RedlichPeterson isotherms. In order to determine the best-fit isotherm for each system, two
error analysis methods were used to evaluate the
data: the linear coefficient of determination and
the Chi-square statistic test for determination of a
nonlinear model. Results indicated that the Chisquare test provided a better determination for
the three sets of experimental data.
Cotton waste
Cotton is one of the most widely used fibers
by the agriculturists. Cotton found naturally and
consisting cellulose exhibits excellent physical and
chemical properties in terms of stability, water absorbency, and dye removal ability. Bouzaida and
Rammah (2002) reported the adsorption of acid
dyes on treated cotton in a continuous system.
It has been concluded that at 20 C and for the
grafted support at 1.25% of nitrogen, the capacity
is around 589, 448, and 302 mg of adsorbed dye,
respectively, for acid blue 25, acid yellow 99, and
Reactive yellow 23 dyes. Sawada and Ueda (2003)
studied the solubilization and adsorption behavior
of direct dye on cotton in Aerosol-OT revere
micellar system. Cotton fabrics could be dyed in
deep shade with direct dye from reverse micellar
system without adding auxiliaries. Exhaustion of
dye was almost perfect and was very superior to
that in aqueous system. High exhaustion of the
163
dye in reverse micellar system was attributed to

the very low bath ratio (waterfabric ratio) compared to the conventional aqueous dyeing process.
It has become obvious that adsorption of direct dye on cotton in reverse micellar system is
similar to that in aqueous system and follows a
Freundlich manner.
Fly ash
Adsorption and removal of commercial dyes were
studied in aqueous suspensions of fly ash mixtures
with a sandy clay loam soil of low organic matter
content. The commercial dyes, acid orange 7, acid
yellow 23, disperse blue 79, basic yellow 28, and
direct yellow 28 represent the widely used nitroazo structures. Batch and column experiments
were carried out by Albanis et al. (2000) at equilibrium conditions for concentrations of dyes between 5 and 60 mg L1 . The logarithmic form
of Freundlich equation gave a high linearity and
the K constants are increasing with the increase
of fly ash content in adsorbent mixtures and the
affinity between the adsorbent surface and adsorbed solute. The mean amount of removed dyes
by adsorption batch experiments in soil mixture
with 20% fly ash content were up to 53.0% for
acid yellow 7, 44.9% for acid yellow 23, 99.2%
for direct yellow 28, 96.8% for basic yellow 28,
and 88.5% for disperse blue 79. The removal of
dyes from column experiments decrease with the
increase of the solution concentration form 10
to 50 mg L1 at 20 C, showing the process to
be highly dependent on the concentration of the
solution. The mean removed amounts of dyes by
adsorption on columns of soil mixture with 20%
fly ash content and for initial concentration of
dye solutions 50 mg L1 were up to 33.8% for
acid yellow 7, 59.4% for acid yellow 23, 84.2%
for direct yellow 28, 98.2% for basic yellow 28,
and 60.3% for disperse blue 79. Moreover, Lataye
et al. (2009) reported adsorption of pyridine (Py)
from aqueous solutions, using bagasse fly ash
(BFA), which is a solid waste that is generated
from bagasse-fired boilers as an adsorbent. Batch
adsorption studies have been performed to evaluate the influence of various parameters, on the
removal of Py from the aqueous solutions. The
maximum removal of Py is determined to be 99%
164
at lower concentrations (<50 mg L1 ) and 95%

at higher concentrations (600 mg L1 ), using a
BFA dosage of 25 kg m3 at normal temperature.
Studies on Py adsorption equilibrium and kinetics
by BFA also have been conducted. The adsorption equilibrium analyses are performed, using
the Langmuir, Freundlich, RedlichPeterson, and
Temkin isotherm equations. The Langmuir equation is determined to best represent the equilibrium sorption data. Thermodynamic studies revealed
that the adsorption of Py on BFA is endothermic
in nature and that the isosteric heat of adsorption
decreases as the equilibrium uptake of Py on the
BFA surface increases.
Adsorption studies were carried out for differ
ent temperatures, particle sizes, pHs, and adsorbent doses by Mohan et al. (2002a). The adsorption of each dye was found to increase with
increasing temperature, thereby indicating that
the process is endothermic in nature. The removal of each dye was found to be inversely
proportional to the size of the fly ash particles,
as expected. Both the linear and nonlinear forms
of the Langmuir and Freundlich models have
fitted the adsorption data. The results indicate
that the Freundlich adsorption isotherm fitted
the data better than the Langmuir adsorption
isotherm. Further, the data were better correlated with the nonlinear than the linear form of
this equation. Thermodynamic parameters such
as the free energies, enthalpies, and entropies of
adsorption of the dye-fly ash systems were also
evaluated. The negative values of free energy indicate the feasibility and spontaneous nature of
the process, and the positive heats of enthalpy
suggest the endothermic nature of the process.
The adsorptions of crystal violet and basic fuschin
follow first-order rate kinetics. In comparison to
other low-cost adsorbents, the sorption capacity
of the material under investigation is found to be
comparable to that of other commercially available adsorbents used for the removal of cationic
dyes from wastewater (Mane et al. 2007b; Gupta
and Shukla 1996). Hsu (2008) carried out experiment in which they found that raw coal fly
ash (CFA) that has not been subjected to any
pretreatment process have a superior adsorbing
ability for the anionic dye Acid red 1 (AR1) than
the two modified coal fly ashes (CFA-600 and
CFA-NaOH). The adsorption capacities followed

the order CFA > CFA-600 > CFA-NaOH, and
the capacities for all of them increased upon increasing the temperature (60 C > 45 C > 30 C).
The adsorptions of AR1 onto CFA, CFA-600,
and CFA-NaOH, all followed pseudo-secondorder kinetics. The isotherms for the adsorption
of AR1 onto the raw and modified coal fly ashes
fit the Langmuir isotherm quite well; the adsorption capacities of CFA, CFA-600, and CFANaOH for AR1 were 92.59103.09, 32.7952.63,
and 12.6625.12 mg g1 , respectively. According
to the positive values of H and S , these adsorptions were endothermic processes. The ARE
and EABS error function methods provided the
best parameters for the Langmuir isotherms and
pseudo-second-order equations, respectively, in
the AR1CFA adsorption system.
Sludge ash/bottom ash
Weng and Pan (2006) reported that the kinetics and equilibrium adsorption experiments were
conducted to evaluate the adsorption characteristics of a cationic dye (MB) onto bio-sludge ash.
Results show that the ash could remove the dye
effectively from aqueous solution. The adsorption
rate was fast and about 80% of absorbed MB
was removed in 10 min. The adsorption kinetics
could be expressed by the modified Freundlich
equation and intra-particle diffusion model. It was
found that both the initial MB concentration and
ionic strength could affect the rate of adsorption.
The effect of electrical double layer thickness
on the adsorption kinetics was discussed. The
equilibrium adsorption data was correlated well
to the nonlinear multilayer adsorption isotherm.
The maximum adsorption capacities for MB were
7.3 106 , 6.3 106 , 5.0 106 , and 3.5
106 mol g1 , respectively, at temperature of 4 C,
14 C, 24 C, and 34 C. Values of the first-layer
adsorption energy, Go , ranged from 6.62 to
7.65 kcal mol1 , suggesting that the adsorption
could be considered as a physical process, which
is simultaneously enhanced by the electrostatic
effects. The multilayer adsorption energy, Go ,
ranged from -4.51 to -5.02 kcal mol1 , suggesting that the adsorption was of the typical physical type. On the basis of the monolayer dye
adsorption capacity, the specific surface area of

this ash sample was estimated as 2.12.9 m2 g1
which is close to the value (3.7 m2 g1 ) obtained
via BET nitrogen gas adsorption measurements.
Mittal et al. (2006a) carried out an inexpensive
adsorption method for the removal of indigo
carmine, a highly toxic indigoid class of dye from
wastewater by bottom ash. Attempts have been
made through batch and bulk removal of the dye,
and both the adsorbents have been found to exhibit good efficiency to adsorb indigo carmine.
Under batch technique effect of temperature,
pH, concentration, dosage of adsorbents, sieve
size of adsorbents, etc. have been observed. The
dye uptake on to both the adsorbents is found
to validate Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption
isotherms models. Different thermodynamic parameters, like Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and
entropy of the ongoing adsorption process, have
also been evaluated (Aksu and Tezer 2000). The
Batch technique employed for kinetic measurements, and the adsorption follows a first-orderrate kinetics for both the adsorbents. The kinetic
investigations also reveal for both the adsorbents
film diffusion and particle diffusion mechanisms
are operative in the lower and higher concentration ranges, respectively. Under the bulk removal,
indigo carmine has been adsorbed through the
column beds of bottom ash and de-oiled soya, and
more than 90% of the dye material has been recovered by eluting dilute NaOH solution through
exhausted columns.
Tartrazine a highly toxic dye can be adsorbed
by bottom ash as demonstrated by Mittal et al.
(2006b). Through the batch technique, equilibrium uptake of the dye is observed at different
concentrations, pH of the solution, dosage of adsorbents, and sieve size of adsorbents. Langmuir
and Freundlich adsorption isotherms are successfully employed on both the adsorbents, and on the
basis of these models, the thermodynamic parameters are evaluated. Kinetic investigations reveal
that more than 50% adsorption of dye is achieved
in about 1 h in both these cases, whereas equilibrium establishment takes about 3 to 4 h. The linear
plots obtained in rate constant and mass transfer
studies further confirm the applicability of first
order rate expression and mass transfer model,
respectively. The kinetic data treated to identify
165
rate controlling step of the ongoing adsorption

processes indicate that for both the systems, particle diffusion process is predominant at higher
concentrations, while film diffusion takes place at
lower concentrations. The column studies reveal
that about 96% saturation of both the columns
is attained during their exhaustion, while about
88% and 84% of the dye material is recovered by
eluting dilute NaOH solution through exhausted
Bottom Ash.
Fruit waste
In this part of the review article, we have tried to
discuss the cellulose-based waste (fruit waste) for
the removal of different types of dyes from water
(Table 2). Fruit peel and pith is discarded in the
juice and soft-drink industries all over the world,
and India is the second largest consumer and producer of fruits which also leads to the generation
of million tones of fruit waste. Such fruit waste can
be effectively used for the wastewater treatment
(Hameed et al. 2008; Kumar and Porkodi 2006;
Youssef 1993).
Yellow passion fruit
Pavan et al. (2008a) reported that the use of
yellow passion fruit (YPFW), a powdered solid
waste, was tested as biosorbent for the removal
of a cationic dye MB from aqueous solution. Adsorption of MB onto this low-cost natural adsorbent was studied by batch adsorption at 25 C.
The effects of shaking time, biosorbent dosage,
and pH on adsorption capacities were studied.
In alkaline pH region, the adsorption of MB is
favorable. The contact time required to obtain
the maximum adsorption was 48 h at 25 C. Four
kinetic models were tested, being the adsorption
kinetics better fitted to pseudo-first-order and ion
exchange kinetic models. The ion exchange and
pseudo-first-order constant rates were 0.05594
and 0.05455 h1 , respectively. The equilibrium
data was fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips, and
RedlichPeterson isotherm models. Taking into
account the analysis of the normal distribution of
the residuals (difference of qmeasured qmodel ), the
data were best fitted to Sips isotherm model. The
maximum amount of MB is absorbed by YPFW
166
Table 2 Reviewed results representing the adsorption capacity of fruit waste for the adsorption of dyes and their optimized
pH values for maximum adsorption
Adsorbent
Dye
pH
Adsorption capacity
References

Mandarin peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Orange peel
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Banana pith
Garlic peel
Raw date pits
Activated date pits (500 C)
Activated date pits (900 C)
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Apple pomace
Brazilian pine fruit shell - PW
Brazilian pine fruit shell - C-PW
Barley straw
Barley straw
Olive pomace
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Rhodamine B
Congo red
Procion orange
Acid violet 17
Direct red 28
Direct red 23
Direct red 80
Basic violet 10
Methyl orange
Methylene blue
Rhodamine B
Congo red
Methyl violet
Amido black 10B
Direct red 28
Basic blue 9
Basic violet 10
Methyl orange
Methylene blue
Rhodamine B
Congo red
Methyl violet
Amido black 10B
Rhodamine B
Direct red
Acid brilliant blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Acid blue 25
Acid red 114
Basic blue 69
Basic red 22
Acid blue 25
Acid red 114
Basic blue 69
Basic red 22
Basic blue 69
Basic red 22
Acid blue 114
Acid red 25
Reactive dye mixture
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Acid blue 40
Reactive black 5
Reactive red 198
9.0
8.0
11.0
3.0
5.0
3.0
6.3
8.0
2.0
2.0
8.0
5.7
7.2
5.8
7.9
5.3
5.8
8.0
8.0
8.0
5.7
7.2
5.8
7.9
5.3
5.8
4.0
3.0
3.0
6.0
8.0
8.0
8.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
8.5
8.5
2.0
16.00 mg g1
44.70 mg g1
15.20 mg g1
3.22 mg g1
22.40 mg g1
1.30 mg g1
19.88 mg g1
14.00 mg g1
10.72 mg g1
21.05 mg g1
14.30 mg g1
20.50 mg g1
18.60 mg g1
14.30 mg g1
14.00 mg g1
11.50 mg g1
7.90 mg g1
18.20 mg g1
20.80 mg g1
20.60 mg g1
21.00 mg g1
20.80 mg g1
20.60 mg g1
18.20 mg g1
12.20 mg g1
6.50 mg g1
8.50 mg g1
5.92 mg g1
4.42 mg g1
142.86 mg g1
80.29 mg g1
12.94 mg g1
17.27 mg g1
21.70 mg g1
22.90 mg g1
157.40 mg g1
76.60 mg g1
17.50 mg g1
20.00 mg g1
152.00 mg g1
75.00 mg g1
158.00 mg g1
77.00 mg g1
22.00 mg g1
23.00 mg g1
2.79 mg g1
185.00 mg g1
413.00 mg g1
1.02 104 mol g1
2.54 105 mol g1
1.08 104 mol g1
Pavan et al. (2007)

Pavan et al. (2008a)
Pavan et al. (2007)
Sivaraj et al. (2001)
Annadurai et al. (2002)
Arami et al. (2005)
Arami et al. (2005)
Hameed and Ahmad (2009)
Banat et al. (2003)
Banat et al. (2003)
Banat et al. (2003)
McKay et al. (1999)
McKay et al. (1996)
McKay et al. (1996)
McKay et al. (1996)
Chen et al. (2001)
Chen et al. (2001)
Chen et al. (2001)
Chen et al. (2001)
McKay et al. (1987)
McKay et al. (1987)
McKay et al. (1987)
McKay et al. (1987)
Robinson et al. (2002c)
Royer et al. (2009)
Royer et al. (2009)
Oei et al. (2009)
Oei et al. (2009)
Akar et al. (2009)
167
Table 2 (continued)
Adsorbent
Pith
Pith
Palm fruit bunch
Palm fruit bunch
Palm fruit bunch
Jack fruit peel
Dye
Acid blue 25
Basic blue 69
Basic yellow 21
Basic red 22
Basic blue 3
Basic blue 9
pH
5.0
5.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
biosorbent was 44.70 mg g1 . In one of his papers, he also reported that the total number of
experiments for achieving the highest removal of
MB from aqueous solutions using yellow passion
fruit peel (Passif lora edullis f. f lavicarpa) and
mandarin peel (Citrus reticulata) as biosorbents
two independent sets of full 23 factorial designs
with two central points (10 experiments) were experimented. In order to continue the optimization
of the system, a new full 22 factorial design with
two central points (six experiments) and a central composite surface analysis (13 experiments,
divided into four cube points, five center points,
and four axial points) were employed for yellow
passion fruit peel (PFP) and mandarin peel (MP),
respectively. Using these statistical tools, the best
conditions for MB removal from aqueous solution
were initially methylene blue (Co ) of 3.20 mg L1 ,
pH 9.0 for PFP and 11.0 for MP, and time of
contact higher than 48 h for PFP and 42.9 h for
MP (Hameed 2009).
Garlic peel
Hameed and Ahmad (2009) reported the potential of garlic peel, an agricultural waste to remove MB from aqueous solution. Experiments
were carried out as function of contact time, initial concentration (25200 mg L1 ), pH (412),
and temperature (303, 313, and 323 K). Adsorption isotherms were modeled with the Langmuir,
Freundlich, and Temkin isotherms. The data fitted
well with the Freundlich isotherm. The maximum
monolayer adsorption capacities were found to
be 82.64, 123.45, and 142.86 mg g1 at 303, 313,
and 323 K, respectively. The kinetic data were
analyzed using pseudo-first-order and pseudosecond-order models. The results indicated that
Adsorption capacity
g1
14.30 mg
150.00 mg g1
327.00 mg g1
180.00 mg g1
92.00 mg g1
285.71 mg g1
References
Ho and McKay (2003)
Ho and McKay (2003)
Nassar and Magdy (1997)
Hameed (2009)
the garlic peel could be an alternative for more

costly adsorbents used for dye removal isotherm
model. In order to reduce the total number of
experiments for achieving the highest removal of
MB from aqueous solutions using yellow passion
fruit peel (P. edullis f. f lavicarpa) and mandarin
peel (C. reticulata) as biosorbents, two independent sets of full 23 factorial designs with two central points (10 experiments) were experimented.
Orange peel and Banana pith
Orange peel waste was studied as a very good
adsorbent for the adsorption of many dyes.
Namasivayam et al. (1996) reported the adsorption
of Congo red, Procion orange, and Rhodamine
B dyes. The process was studied at different
concentrations of dyes, adsorbent dosage, agitation time, and pH was found to obey Langmuir
and Freundlich isotherms. Orange peels have
also been investigated as an adsorbent by Sivaraj
et al. (2001) for the removal of an acid dye:
acid violet17. The adsorption capacity Q0 was
19.88 mg g1 at initial pH of 6.3. The equilibrium time was found to be 80 min for 10, 20, 30,
and 40 mg L1 dye concentration, respectively.
A maximum removal of 87% was obtained at
pH 2.0 for an adsorbent dose of 600 mg 50 mL1
of 10 mg L1 dye concentration. Adsorption increases with increase in pH. Maximum desorption
of 60% was achieved in water medium at pH of 10.
Namasivayam et al. (1998) reported the adsorption of direct red and acid brilliant blue with
waste banana pith by varying the agitation time,
dye concentration, adsorbent dosage, and pH 9
(Annadurai et al. 2002). The adsorption capacity was 5.92 and 4.42 mg dye per gram of the
adsorbent for direct red and acid brilliant blue,
168
respectively. Also the adsorption of Rhodamine-B

has been reported by Namasivayam et al. (1993).
A maximum removal of 87% of the dye was observed at pH 4. Orange peel is also tested as an
adsorbent by Arami et al. (2005), Ardejani
et al. (2007), and Annadurai et al. (2002). Arami
et al. (2005) reported the adsorption capacity of
direct red 23 and direct red 80 to be 10.72 and
21.05 mg g1 , respectively.
Plant waste
The obvious advantage of above discussed adsorbent for the dyes removal by adsorption treatment
is the lower costs involved. Hence, there is a need
to search for more economical and effective adsorbents. Tree fern is naturally and commercially
available in all over the world. This variety of
tree fern is generally marketed for horticultural
purposes because of its character of adsorbability
to retain water and manure for plants. Tree fern
is generally dark brown in color and is a complex
material containing lignin and cellulose as major constituents (Newman 1997). Chemical sorption can occur via the polar functional groups of
lignin, which include alcohols, aldehydes, ketones,
acids, phenolic hydroxides, and ethers as chemical
bonding and ion exchange (Adler and Lundquist
1963). Tree fern, an agricultural by-product, has
been currently investigated to remove dyes from
aqueous solutions (McKay et al. 1981; Ofomaja
2007; Ofomaja and Ho 2007; Han et al. 2006).
Moreover, after cutting off the fruit bunch, most
of the residues are either used as manure or simply
thrown away or burnt off to reduce the volume.
The approximate amount of dry matter produced
per banana plant is about 1.0, 1.3 and 5.0 g of leaf,
pseudostem, and fruits, respectively (Hegde and
Srinivas 1991).
Plant leaf powder
Sarma et al. (2008) reported the removal of a basic
dye called Rhodamine B from aqueous solution
by adsorption onto a biosorbent, Azadirachta indica (neem) leaf powder (AILP). Removal was
tested in a batch process with concentration of
dye solution, AILP load, pH, temperature, and
contact time as the working variables. The adsorp-
tion was favored by an acidic pH range and was

best described by a second-order rate equation.
The experimental data were verified by fitting
into both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms.
Thermodynamically, the process was found to be
exothermic accompanied by a decrease in entropy
and increase in Gibbs energy as the temperature
of adsorption was increased from 303 to 333 K.
The effect of solution temperature and the determination of the thermodynamic parameters of
adsorption of RB on AILP enthalpy of activation, entropy of activation, and free energy of
activation, on the adsorption rates are important in understanding the adsorption mechanism.
The rate and the transport/kinetic processes of
dye adsorption onto the adsorbents are described
by applying various kinetic adsorption models.
This would lead to a better understanding of the
mechanisms controlling the adsorption rate. The
pseudo-second-order model was the best choice
among all the kinetic models to describe the
adsorption behavior of RB onto AILP, suggesting that the adsorption mechanism might be a
chemisorption process. The negative value of the
enthalpy change suggested that the rise in the
solution temperature did not favor RB adsorption
onto AILP (Bhattacharyya and Sharma 2004).
Bestani et al. (2008) identify the effectiveness
of a local desert plant characteristic of Southwest Algeria and known as Salsola vermiculata,
which was pyrolyzed and treated chemically with a
50% zinc chloride solution, to remove methylene
blue and iodine. The natural plant adsorption capacities were respectively 23 and 272 mg g1 for
methylene blue and iodine. Corresponding results for the pyrolyzed plant uptakes were 53and
951 mg g1 , while those for the pyrolyzed plant,
chemically treated and activated at 650 C, were
130and 1,178 mg g1 , respectively. In comparison,
the standard Merck-activated carbon capacities
were 200 mg g1 for MB and 950 mg g1 for iodine. Consequently, this low-cost local plant may
also prove useful for the removal of large organic
molecules as well as potential inorganic contaminants. The sorption of methylene blue onto
untreated guava leaf powder has been studied by
Ponnusami et al. (2008). The kinetics of sorption
of methylene blue is described by pseudo-secondorder model. Effects of initial dye concentration,
solution temperature, and adsorbent dosage have

been studied. The pseudo-second-order rate constant has been correlated as a function of the
system variables. Statistical tools like Students
t test, F test, ANOVA, and lack of fit have been
employed to determine the significance of each
coefficient that appeared in the model. Model adequacy has been checked by residual distribution.
The proposed model explains 95.1% of the total
variation in the response. The development, characterization, and application of adsorbents prepared from avocado kernel seeds were discussed
by Elizalde-Gonzlez et al. (2007), and they come
to the conclusion that a mayor adsorption capacity
of the non-carbonized adsorbent in comparison
with carbonized samples is due to the greater
amount of surface acidic groups.
Plant f iber
The use of Palm kernel fiber, a readily available agricultural waste product, for the sorption
of MB from aqueous solution and the possible
mechanism of sorption has been investigated by
Ofomaja (2008b). The extent of dye removal
and the rate of sorption were analyzed using
two kinetic rate models (pseudo-first and pseudosecond-order kinetic models) and two diffusion
models (intra-particle and external mass transfer
models). Analysis of the kinetic data at different
sorbent dose revealed that the pseudo-first-order
kinetics fitted to the kinetic data only in the first
5 min of sorption and then deviated from the
experimental data. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model was found to better fit the experimental data with high correlation and coefficients
at the various fiber dose used. The dye sorption
was confirmed to follow the pseudo-second-order
model by investigating the relationship between
the amount of dye sorbed and the change in
hydrogen ion concentration of the dye solution
and also the dependence of dye uptake with solution temperature. It was found that the change
in hydrogen ion concentration and increase in
sorption temperature were directly related to the
amount of dye sorbed, and activation energy was
calculated to be 39.57 kJ mol1 , indicating that
the dye uptake is chemisorption, involving valence
forces through sharing or exchange of electrons
169
between sorbent and sorbate as covalent forces.

The intra-particle diffusion and mass transfer rate
constants were observed to be well correlated with
sorbent dose in the first 5 min of sorption, indicating that sorption process to be complex. It was
found that at low sorbent dose, the mass transfer
is the main rate controlling parameter. However,
at high sorbent dose, intra-particle diffusion becomes rate controlling.
Wu et al. (1999) reported some results of plum
kernels on MB. The activation temperature and
time tested were in the ranges 750900 C and
14 h, respectively. Adsorption isotherms of two
commercial dyes and phenol from water on such
activated carbons were measured at 30 C. The
experimental results indicated that the prepared
activated carbons were economically promising
for adsorption removal of dyes and phenol, in
contrast to the other commercial adsorbents.
The kinetics and mechanism of adsorption of
two commercial dyes basic red 22 and acid blue
2, phenol, and 3-chlorophenol from water on activated carbons were studied at 30 C by Juang et al.
(2000). Three simplified kinetic models including
a pseudo-first-order, a pseudo-second-order, and
an intra-particle diffusion model were tested. It
was shown that the adsorption of both phenols
could be fitted to a pseudo-second-order rate
law and that of both dyes could be fitted to an
intra-particle diffusion model. Kinetic parameters
were calculated and correlated with the physical
properties of the adsorbents. Tseng (2007) reported that activated carbon was prepared from
plum kernels by NaOH activation at six different
NaOH/char ratios. The physical properties including the BET surface area, the total pore volume,
the micropore ratio, the pore diameter, the burnoff, and the scanning electron microscope (SEM)
observations as well as the chemical properties,
namely elemental analysis and temperature programmed desorption, were measured. The results
revealed a two-stage activation process: Stage 1
activated carbons were obtained at NaOH/char
ratios of 01, surface pyrolysis being the main
reaction; Stage 2 activated carbons were obtained
at NaOH/char ratios of 24, etching and swelling
being the main reactions. The physical properties
of stage 2 activated carbons were similar, and
specific area was from 1478 to 1887 m2 g1 . The
170
results of reaction mechanism of NaOH activation

revealed that it was apparently because of the loss
ratio of elements C, H, and O in the activated
carbon, the variations in the surface functional
groups and the physical properties. Three kinds
of dyes (MB, BB1, and AB74) were used for
an isotherm equilibrium adsorption study. The
data fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm equation. In this work, activated carbons prepared
by NaOH activation were evaluated in terms of
their physical properties, chemical properties, and
adsorption type, and the activated carbon plum
kernel was found to have most application potential. Kumar and Kumrana (2005) in one of
their papers reported the sorption of MB onto
mango seed kernel particles. The operating variables studied were the initial solution pH, temperature, adsorbent mass, initial dye concentration,
and contact time. Equilibrium data were fitted
to Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm equation,
and the equilibrium data were found to be well
represented by Langmuir isotherm equation. The
monolayer sorption capacity of mango seed kernel
for MB sorption was found to be 142.857 mg g1 at
303 K. The sorption kinetics was found to follow
pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The MB uptake
process was found to be controlled by both surface and pore diffusion with surface diffusion at
the earlier stages, followed by pore diffusion at
later stages. The average effective diffusion coefficiency was calculated and found to be 5.66
104 cm2 s1 . Analysis of sorption data using Boyd
plot confirms that the external mass transfer is the
rate limiting step in the sorption process. Various thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy
of sorption H o , free energy change Go , and
entropy So were estimated. The positive value
of H o and negative values of Go show that
the sorption process is endothermic and spontaneous. Jute stick powder has been found to be a
promising material for adsorptive removal of CR
(C.I. 22120) and RB (C.I. 45170) from aqueous
solutions demonstrated by Panda et al. (2008).
Physiochemical parameters like dye concentration, solution pH, temperature, and contact time
have been varied to study the adsorption phenomenon. Favorable adsorption occurs at around
pH 7.0, whereas temperature has no significant
effect on adsorption of both the dyes. The max-
imum adsorption capacity has been calculated

to be 35.7 and 87.7 mg g1 of the biomass for
CR and RB, respectively. The adsorption process
is in conformity with Freundlich and Langmuir
isotherms for RB whereas CR adsorption fits
well to Langmuir isotherm only. In both cases,
adsorption occurs very fast initially and attains
equilibrium within 60 min. Kinetic results suggest
the intra-particle diffusion of dyes as rate limiting
step.
Wood shaving
Jano et al. (2008) reported that spruce wood
shavings from Picea abies were used for an adsorptive removal of both basic as well as acid
dyes from waters. The sorption properties of the
sorbents were modified by treating with HCl,
Na2 CO3 , and Na2 HPO4 . The treatment of the
wood sorbents with alkaline carbonate solution
as well as with phosphate solution increased the
sorption ability for the basic dye (MB), whereas
the treatment with mineral acid decreased the
sorption ability for MB to some extent. The opposite is true for the sorption of the acid dye
Egacid Orange. The maximum sorption capacities estimated from the LangmuirFreundlich
isotherms ranged from 0.060 to 0.165 mmol g1 for
MB and from 0.045 to 0.513 mmol g1 for Egacid
Orange. The basic dye sorption decreased at low
pH values in accordance with a presupposed ionexchange mechanism of the sorption. The sorption of acid dye, on the other hand, decreased with
increasing pH. The presence of inorganic salts as
well as surfactants exhibited only minor effects on
the dye sorption. Similar kind of study has also
been reported by Ho and McKay (1998a).
Tea waste
The potentiality of tea waste for the adsorptive
removal of MB, a cationic dye, from aqueous solution was reported by Uddin et al. (2008). Batch
kinetics and isotherm studies were carried out
under varying experimental conditions of contact
time, initial MB concentration, adsorbent dosage,
and pH. The nature of the functional groups of adsorbent and their corresponding frequencies are
shown by FTIR spectra. The pH of the adsorbent
was estimated by titration method and a value of

4.3 0.2 was obtained. An adsorptiondesorption
study was carried out resulting the mechanism of
adsorption was reversible and ion exchange. Adsorption equilibrium of tea waste reached within
5 h for MB concentrations of 2050 mg L1 . The
sorption was analyzed using pseudo-first-order
and pseudo-second-order kinetics models, and the
sorption kinetics was found to follow a pseudosecond-order kinetics model. The extent of the
dye (milligrams per gram) removal increased with
increasing initial dye concentration. The equilibrium data in aqueous solutions were well represented by the Langmuir isotherm model. The
adsorption capacity of MB onto tea waste was
found to be as high as 85.16 mg g1 , which is
several folds higher than the adsorption capacity
of a number of recently studied in the literature potential adsorbents. Tea waste appears as
a very prospective adsorbent for the removal of
methylene blue from aqueous solution.
Oil palm wood
Activated carbons were prepared from the biomass of oil palm wood via two stages, pyrolysis
and physical activation, using an environment
friendly pyrolysis pilot plant, and an activation
pilot plant; it was studied by Ahmad et al. (2007).
The latter uses the outlet flue gases from limestone
calcination process as activating agents. Experimental results showed that pyrolysis and activation conditions leading to various final average
temperatures had significant effects on the properties of activated carbons prepared. Methylene
blue adsorption was tested and 90.9 mg g1 maximum adsorption capacity was found. The high micropore fraction, N2 adsorption isotherm, and SEM
showed that these activated carbons possessed
intricate pore network comprising micropores and
narrow mesopores. FTIR characterization indicated that pyrolysis and activation temperatures
affected the surface functional groups, and maximum methylene blue adsorption was dependent
on BET surface area.
Activated carbon prepared from low-cost palm
oil fiber has been utilized as the adsorbent for the
removal of basic dye; methylene blue is studied by
Darus et al. (2005). Experiments were conducted
171
at different pH, different adsorbent dose, different

initial concentration of dye, and different contact
time. The most effective of color removal was
optimum at pH 7 and the percentage removal increased with the increase in carbon dose while the
percentage removal decreased with the increase in
initial dye concentration. The adsorption equilibrium for color reached at 90 min of contact time.
The results indicated that palm oil fiber could be
employed as low cost alternatives to commercially
activated carbon in wastewater treatment for dye
removal.
Sawdust
Sawdust is composed of fine particles of wood.
This material is produced from cutting with a saw,
hence its name. Garg et al. (2004) investigates the
potential use of Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia sissoo) sawdust, pretreated with formaldehyde and
sulfuric acid, for the removal of methylene blue
dye from simulated wastewater. Higher adsorption percentages were observed at lower concentrations of methylene blue. Optimum pH value for
dye adsorption was determined as 7.0 for both the
adsorbents. Maximum dye was sequestered within
30 min after the beginning for every experiment.
The adsorption of methylene blue followed a firstorder rate equation and fit the Lagergren equation well.
In another case, Ibrahim et al. (1997) studied
the factors affecting preparation of wood sawdust and used the obtained adsorbents for the removal of anionic dyestuffs. Sawdust was modified
by reacting with cross-linked polyethylenimine
(CPEI) to create aminated adsorbent. Modified
sawdust was added to acidic dye (pH 3.0) and
shook for 30 min at 25 C. The filtrate was collected, and its concentration was determined with
a UV spectrophotometer. The results showed that
modification with CPEI increased the adsorptivity
of the sawdust, since the CPEI introduced positive
sorptive sites in the form of reactive amino groups
onto the wood material, thus improving the sawdust reactivity and anionic dye uptake. Similar
results are also studied by Ferrero (2007), Malik
(2003), and zacar and Sengil (2003). The adsorption capacities of plant waste were summarized in
Table 3.
172
Table 3 Reviewed results representing the adsorption capacity of plants waste for the adsorption of dyes and their optimized
pH values for maximum adsorption
Adsorbent
Dye
Azadirachta indica (neem)

leaf powder
Azadirachta indica (neem)
leaf powder
Activated desert plant
Guava leaf powder
Tea waste
Oil palm wood
Oil palm wood
Palm kernel fiber
Mango seed kernel
Jute stick powder
Jute stick powder
Tree fern
Saw dust-Walnut
Saw dust- cherry
Saw dust- oak
Saw dust- pitch pine
Sawdust carbon
Pine sawdust (raw)
Pine sawdust (raw)
Avocado kernel seeds - AGAP
Avocado kernel seeds - AGAP1
Avocado kernel seeds - AGAP-P-800
Avocado kernel seeds AGAP-P-N-800
Sawdust (Formaldehyde treated)
Sawdust (Sulphuric acid treated)
Wood
Wood
Mansonia wood
Sawdust
Eucalyptus bark
Wood chips
Wood chips
Beech sawdust (CaCl2 treated)
Beech sawdust (CaCl2 treated)
Beech sawdust (original)
Beech sawdust (original)
Neem leaf powder
Rhodamine B
7.2
25.80 mg g1
Congo red
6.7
128.30 mg g1
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Congo red
Rhodamine B
Basic red 13
Acid blue 25
Acid blue 25
Acid blue 25
Acid blue 25
Acid yellow 36
Acid yellow 132
Acid blue 256
Basic blue 41
Basic blue 41
Basic blue 41
Basic blue 41
Basic blue 41
Basic blue 41
6.4
7.0
4.3
7.0
7.2
7.1
8.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
3.0
3.5
3.5
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
23.00 mg g1
95.10 mg g1
85.16 mg g1
90.90 mg g1
25.0 mg g1
49.96 mg g1
142.90 mg g1
35.70 mg g1
87.70 mg g1
408.00 mg g1
36.98 mg g1
31.98 mg g1
27.85 mg g1
26.19 mg g1
183.80 mg g1
398.80 mg g1
280.30 mg g1
72.60 mg g1
43.40 mg g1
67.10 mg g1
130.20 mg g1
125.30 mg g1
86.60 mg g1
Malachite green
Malachite green
Basic blue 69
Acid blue 25
Methtlene blue
Methylene violet
Remazol BB
Remazol red
Remazol black B
Methylene blue
Red basic 22
Methylene blue
Red basic 22
Brilliant green
7.0
9.0
7.0
7.0
10.0
10.0
2.0
7.0
7.0
11.0
11.0
11.0
11.0
7.0
27.00 mg g1
59.70 mg g1
77.00 mg g1
6.14 mg g1
33.44 mg g1
21.65 mg g1
34.10 mg g1
2.80 mg g1
3.30 mg g1
13.02 mg g1
23.90 mg g1
9.78 mg g1
20.20 mg g1
0.55 mmol g1
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
7.0
55.00 mol g1
39.00 mol g1
184.00 mol g1
91.00 mol g1
33.00 mol g1
36.00 mol g1
211.00 mol g1
111.00 mol g1
62.40 mg g1
Wood shaving untreated

Wood shaving HCl treated
Wood shaving Na2 CO3 treated
Wood shaving NaHPO4 treated
Wood shaving untreated
Wood shaving HCl treated
Wood shaving Na2 CO3 treated
Wood shaving NaHPO4 treated
Saw dust
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Egacid orange
Egacid orange
Egacid orange
Egacid orange
Methylene blue
pH
Adsorption capacity
References
Sarma et al. (2008)
Bhattacharyya and Sharma
(2004)
Bestani et al. (2008)
Ponnusami et al. (2008)
Uddin et al. (2008)
Ahmad et al. (2007)
Darus et al. (2005)
Ofomaja (2008b)
Kumar and Kumrana (2005)
Panda et al. (2008)
Panda et al. (2008)
Ho et al. (2005b)
Ferrero (2007)
Ferrero (2007)
Ferrero (2007)
Ferrero (2007)
Malik (2003)
zacar and Sengil
(2005)
zacar and Sengil
(2005)
Elizalde-Gonzlez et al. (2007)
Garg et al. (2003)
Garg et al. (2003)
Ho and McKay (1998a)
Ho and McKay (1998a)
Ofomaja (2008a)
Ofomaja (2008a)
Morais et al. (1999)
Nigam et al. (2000)
Nigam et al. (2000)
Batzias and Sidiras (2004)
Bhattacharyya and Sharma
(2003)
Jano et al. (2008)
Jano et al. (2008)
Jano et al. (2008)
Jano et al. (2008)
Jano et al. (2008)
Jano et al. (2008)
Jano et al. (2008)
Jano et al. (2008)
Garg et al. (2004)
Natural inorganic materials

Most recently, the clay minerals and zeolites were
reported to be unconventional adsorbents for the
removal of dyes from aqueous solutions due to
their cheap and abundant resources, higher surface areas (Liu and Zhang 2007). Furthermore,
the regeneration of these low-cost substitutes is
not necessary whereas regeneration of activated
carbon is essential because of the abundant resources. Clay materials with sheet-like structures
(Arbeloa et al. 2002a; Orthman et al. 2003; Li
et al. 2004; Tahir and Rauf 2006) and needlelike structure (Ozdemir et al. 2006; Alkan et al.
2007; Liu and Guo 2006; Huang et al. 2007) have
been increasingly gaining attention because they
are cheaper than activated carbons, and they also
provide highly specific surface area (Zhao and
Liu 2008). On the other hand, zeolites are three
dimensional, microporous, crystalline solids with
well-defined structures that can absorb dyes with
a capacity of up to more than 25% of their weight
in water. For zeolite, their unique properties such
as the existence of high intra-crystalline surface
area, the microporous/mesoporous character of
the uniform pore dimensions, the ion exchange
properties, the ability to develop internal acidity, the thermal stability, and the high internal
surface area along with their ability to absorb
molecules/ionic species in to their structure give
rise to great variety of applications which makes
zeolites special when compared with other inorganic materials (Davis 2002). They separate ions,
complex ions, and molecules based on size, shape,
polarity, and degree of unsaturation.
Clay
Clay material possesses a layered structure and is
considered to be host material. They are classified
on the basis of layered structures. There are several classes of clays such as smectites, kalonite,
serpentine, vermiculite, and sepiolite (Shichi and
Takagi 2000). Grses et al. (2006) investigated
adsorption kinetics of a cationic dye, methylene
blue, onto clay from aqueous solution with respect
to the initial dye concentration, temperature, pH,
mixing rate, and sorbent dosage in this study. In
order to understand the adsorption mechanism
173
in detail, zeta potentials and the conductivities of

clay suspensions at various pH (111) and cation
exchange capacity were measured. Porosity and
BET surface area of clay studied were determined. The results showed that the adsorption
has been reached the equilibrium in 1 h. It was
found that the amount adsorbed of methylene
blue increases with decreasing temperature and
also with increasing both sorbent dosage and increasing initial dye concentration. Adsorption capacity decreases with increasing pH, except for
the natural pH (5.6) of clay suspensions. The
adsorption kinetics of methylene blue has been
studied in terms of pseudo-first-order, pseudosecond-order sorption, and intra-particle diffusion
processes thus comparing chemical sorption and
diffusion sorption processes. It was found that
the pseudo-second-order mechanism is predominant and the overall rate of the dye adsorption
process appears to be controlled by the more
than one step. McKay et al. (1985) reported the
adsorption capacity of fullers earth for basic and
acid blue to be 220 and 120 mg g1 , respectively.
Similar results are also investigated by Ho et al.
(2001) and Grses et al. (2006). Clays are natural
environment-friendly materials with high specific
surface area are now widely used for the adsorption and removal of the organic pollutants. Liu
and Zhang (2007) have reviewed the adsorption
properties of the raw clays, activated clays by
acid treatment or calcinations, organic-modified
clays with small molecules or polymers for the adsorption, and removal of organic dyes from aqueous solutions. The development perspectives are
also proposed. Arbeloa et al. (1998, 2002b) and
Chaudhuri et al. (2000) investigated the hydrophobic effect on the adsorption of rhodamine
3B dye on laponite particles, hectorite, and montmorillonite in aqueous suspensions with electronic
absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies. Clay
minerals exhibit a strong affinity for both heteroatomic cationic and anionic dyes (Table 4).
Sepiolite
Sepiolite has been tested as an adsorbent by many
researchers (Ozdemir et al. 2004). Sepiolite, as an
adsorbent, may be a good alternative to these systems. Sepiolite is a natural hydrated magnesium
174
Table 4 Reviewed results representing the adsorption capacity of naturally available inorganic minerals for the adsorption
of dyes and their optimized pH values for maximum adsorption
Adsorbent
Dye
pH
Adsorption capacity
References
Clay
Clay
Clay
Clay
Clay
Clay
Clay
Sepiolite
Sepiolite
Sepiolite
Sepiolite
Sepiolite
Sepiolite
Am-SiO2
Red mud
Spent activated clay
Zeolite
Zeolite
Zeolite
Zeolite
Zeolite
Zeolite
Perlite
Perlite
Ca Montmorillonite
Ca - Montmorillonite
Ti - Montmorillonite
Ti Montmorillonite
Glass powder
Raw kaolin
Pure kaolin
Calcined raw kaolin
Calcined pure kaolin
NaOH treated raw kaolin
NaOH treated pure kaolin
Calcined alunite
Calcined alunite
Calcined alunite
Fullers earth 1
Fullers earth 2
Fullers earth 3
Fullers earth 4
Balkaya lignite
Diatomaceous clay
Clay
Halloysite nanotubes
Dolomite
Charred dolomite
Fly ash
Red mud
Kaolinite
Methylene blue
Basic blue 69
Acid blue 25
Acid blue 9
Basic red 18
Basic blue 69
Basic red 22
Reactive red 239
Reactive yellow 176
Reactive black 5
Reactive blue 221
Acid blue 62
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Congo red
Methylene blue
Reactive black 5
Reactive red 239
Reactive yellow 176
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Alizarin sulphonate
Methylene blue
Methyl violet
Basic green 5
Basic violet 10
Basic green 5
Basic violet 10
Carminic acid
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Reactive blue 114
Reactive yellow 64
Reactive red 124
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Brilliant red
Brilliant red
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Safranin - O
7.0
7.0
7.0
3.0
3.0
7.0
7.0
11.0
11.0
11.0
6.7
6.7
6.6
5.0
2.0
8.0
11.0
11.0
11.0
7.0
5.0
8.0
11.0
9.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
2.0
10.0
10.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
10.0
7.0
7.0
5.2
5.2
9.2
6.30 mg g1
1200.00 mg g1
220.00 mg g1
57.80 mg g1
157.00 mg g1
585.00 mg g1
488.40 mg g1
108.80 mg g1
169.10 mg g1
120.50 mg g1
55.9 104 mol g1
32.9 104 mol g1
1.87 104 mol g1
70.86 mmol kg1
4.05 mg g1
3.41 104 mol g1
60.50 mg g1
111.10 mg g1
88.50 mg g1
0.045 mmolg1
33.83 mmol kg1
7.13 mmol kg1
9.1 106 mol g1
1.4 105 mol g1
156.30 mg g1
414.90 mg g1
170.50 mg g1
961.50 mg g1
8.2 103 mmol g1
13.99 mg g1
15.55 mg g1
7.59 mg g1
8.88 mg g1
16.34 mg g1
20.49 mg g1
170.70 mg g1
236.00 mg g1
153.00 mg g1
4.48 104 mol g1
6.11 104 mol g1
6.00 104 mol g1
6.34 104 mol g1
40.00 mg g1
4.2 104 mmol g1
0.15 meq g1
84.32 mg g1
900.00 mg g1
110.00 mg g1
1.4 105 mol g1
7.8 106 mol g1
10.45 mol m2
Grses et al. (2004)

McKay et al. (1985)
McKay et al. (1985)
Ho et al. (2001)
Ho et al. (2001)
El-Guendi et al. (1995)
El-Guendi et al. (1995)
Ozdemir et al. (2004)
Alkan et al. (2005)
Alkan et al. (2005)
et al. (2007)
Dogan
Namasivayam and Arasi (1997)
Weng and Pan (2007)
Wang et al. (2005)
et al. (2004)
Dogan
and Alkan (2003)
Dogan
Wang et al. (2004)
Wang et al. (2004)
Wang et al. (2004)
Wang et al. (2004)
Atun and Hisarli (2003)
Ghosh and Bhattacharyya (2002)
zacar and Sengil (2003)
Atun et al. (2003)
Atun et al. (2003)
Atun et al. (2003)
Atun et al. (2003)
Karaca et al. (2004)
Shawabkeh and Tutunji (2003)
Neumann et al. (2002)
Zhao and Liu (2008)
Walker et al. (2003)
Walker et al. (2003)
Wang et al. (2005)
Wang et al. (2005)
Harris et al. (2001)
175
Table 4 (continued)
Adsorbent
Kaolinite
Kaolinite
Kaolinite
QAL alumina
QAL alumina
QAL alumina
QAL alumina
Gibbsite
Gibbsite
Gibbsite
Gibbsite
Silica
Silica
Silica
Silica
Diatomaceous earth
Activated bentonite
Anion clay hydrotalcite
Bentonite HDMTA
Bentonite HDMTA
Bentonite BTEA
Bentonite BTEA
Bentonite Na
Bentonite DTMA
Bentonite
Bentonite
Crude clay
Sand
Raw bentonite
Modified bentonite
Fly ash
Sepiolite
Clinoptilolite
Clinoptilolite
Natural zeolite
Modified zeolite CTAB
Modified zeolite HDTMA
Bentonite
Anilinepropylsilica xerogel
Na-Bentonite
Ca-Bentonite
Arizona
Illite
Kaolinite
Zeolite
Zeolite
Zeolite
Bentonite
Silica
Sand
Sepiolite
Sepiolite
Dye
Azure - A
3,6-diamino acridine
9-amino acridine
Safranin - O
Azure - A
9-amino acridine
Safranin - O
Azure - A
9-amino acridine
Safranin - O
Azure - A
9-amino acridine
Methylene blue
SELLA FAST Brown H
Acid blue 29
2 nitrophenol
2 chlorophenol
2 nitrophenol
2 chlorophenol
Acid blue 193
Acid blue 193
Basic red 2
Basic blue 9
Basic red 46
Methylene blue
Crystal violet
Crystal violet
Reactive Blue 21
Reactive Blue 21
Amido Black 10B
Safranine T
Basic red 46
Reactive yellow 176
Reactive yellow 176
Methylene blue
Congo red
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Methylene blue
Everzol black B
Everzol red 3BS
Everzol yellow 3RS H/C
Malachite green
Basic blue 3
Methylene blue
Acid red 57
Methyl violet
pH
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
9.2
11.0
7.0
7.0
10.0
10.0
4.0
4.0
1.5
1.5
7.9
9.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
2.0
2.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
8.9
7.0
6.0
6.6
Adsorption capacity
m2
8.80 mol
7.18 mol m2
4.85 mol m2
0.55 mol m2
0.45 mol m2
0.34 mol m2
0.02 mol m2
1.40 mol m2
0.90 mol m2
0.70 mol m2
0.80 mol m2
1.40 mol m2
0.88 mol m2
1.15 mol m2
0.40 mol m2
198.00 mg g1
0.36 mg g1
34.00 mg g1
18.64 mg g1
9.95 mg g1
23.02 mg g1
10.04 mg g1
67.10 mg g1
740.50 mg g1
274.00 mg g1
1667.00 mg g1
54.00 mg g1
0.64 mol g1
0.32 mmol g1
1.12 mmol g1
106.71 mg g1
66.67 mg g1
55.13 g g1
11.20 g g1
8.56 mg g1
5.54 mg g1
13.15 mg g1
33.00 mg g1
22.62 mg g1
0.75 mmol g1
0.65 mmol g1
1.15 mmol g1
0.25 mmol g1
0.06 mmol g1
2.90 mg g1
3.70 mg g1
7.60 mg g1
7.72 mg g1
11.16 mg g1
0.64 mol g1
11.99 mol g1
1.76 104 mol g1
References
Al-Ghouti et al. (2003)
Espantalen et al. (2003)
Orthman et al. (2003)
Navarro et al. (2009)
zcan et al. (2004)
zcan et al. (2004)
Hu et al. (2006)
Karim et al. (2009)
Bukallah et al. (2007)
Eren (2009)
Eren (2009)
Demirbas and Nas (2009)
Demirbas and Nas (2009)
Qiu et al. (2009)
Qiu et al. (2009)
Karadag et al. (2007)
Al-Bastaki and Banat (2004)
Pavan et al. (2008b)
Kahr and Madsen (1995)
et al. (2004)
Armagan
et al. (2004)
Armagan
et al. (2004)
Armagan
Tahir and Rauf (2006)
Ahmed and Ram (1992)
Bukallah et al. (2007)
Alkan et al. (2004)
et al. (2007)
Dogan
176
silicate clay mineral, (Si12 )(Mg8 )O30 (OH6 )

(OH2 )4. 8H2 O Structurally, it is formed by blocks
and channels extending in the fiber direction.
Each structural block is composed of two tetrahedral silica sheets and a central octahedral sheet
containing magnesium. The removal of reactive
blue 221 and acid blue 62 anionic dyes onto
sepiolite from aqueous solutions has been investigated by Alkan et al. (2005) using parameters
such as calcination temperature, pH, ionic
strength, and temperature. After 200 C calcination temperature, the specific surface area of
sepiolite decreased with increasing calcination
temperature. The amount adsorbed of reactive
blue 221 and acid blue 62 on sepiolite increased with the increased ionic strength and
temperature and decreasing pH. The sepiolite
sample calcinated at 200 C has the maximum
adsorption capacity. However, calcination at
higher temperature caused a decrease in the
amount adsorbed of dye. Also, Sepiolite was
used as an adsorbent for the removal of methyl
violet and MB from aqueous solutions by
Dogan
et al. (2007). The rate of adsorption was
investigated under various parameters such as
contact time, stirring speed, ionic strength, pH,
and temperature for the removal of these dyes.
Kinetic study showed that the adsorption of
dyes on sepiolite was a gradual process. Quasiequilibrium reached within 3 h. Adsorption rate
increased with the increase in ionic strength, pH,
and temperature. The adsorption of acid red 57 by
natural mesoporous sepiolite has been examined
by Alkan et al. (2004) in order to measure the
ability of this mineral to remove colored textile
dyes from wastewater.
Bentonite
Bentonite
is
an
absorbent
aluminum
phyllosilicate, generally impure clay consisting
mostly of montmorillonite. Combining ultrafiltration (UF) and adsorption is an advance
technique for the treatment of colored wastes
proposed by researchers. Bentonite can be used
to adsorb dyes and UF can be used to purify
wastewaters from colloidal matters. Combining
both processes in a one-step treatment process can
achieve both goals concurrently. The suitability
of such a combined process for the removal

of color caused by MB dye was investigated
(Al-Bastaki and Banat 2004; zacar and
Sengil 2006; Hu et al. 2006). Effects of feed
concentration, feed temperature, bentonite dose,
and operating pressure on the permeate flux
and color removal were investigated. Permeate
flux increased linearly with increasing pressure
while the permeate concentration remained almost
constant (Kahr and Madsen 1995). The addition
of bentonite significantly increased the rejection
coefficient of MB but decreased the permeate
flux. The results obtained in this study revealed
that such a combined process could beneficially
be used for the treatment of dye effluents. Ozcan
et al. (2004) prepared Dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide-modified bentonite (DTMA
bentonite) and tested it as an adsorbent for an
acid dye (Acid Blue 193, AB193) removal from
aqueous solution in comparison to Nabentonite.
Results of this study show that a pH value of 1.5
is favorable for the adsorption of Acid Blue 193.
The isothermal data could be well described by
the Freundlich equation. The dynamical data fit
well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model.
The adsorption capacity of DTMAbentonite
(740.5 mg g1 ) was found to be around 11 times
higher than that of Nabentonite (67.1 mg g1 )
at 20 C. Tahir and Rauf (2006) reported that the
maximum adsorption of the dye, i.e. >90% has
been achieved in aqueous solutions using 0.05 g
of bentonite at a pH of 9.
Zeolites
Zeolites are microporous, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorbents.
Zeolites (Dabrowski 2001) are the only existing crystalline materials with a well-defined pore
structure in the microporous range. Zeolites, with
their permanent negative charges as well as the
interconnection of channels and cages that run
through their secondary framework structure, are
efficient adsorbents for positively charged pollutants such as heavy metals. Zeolites are easily synthesized from industrial wastes such as coal fly ash
and paper sludge ash. Several studies have been
conducted on the sorbent behavior of natural ze et al. 2004; Karcher et al. 2001).
olites (Armagan
Similar conclusions have been found by Ozdemir

et al. (2004) and Wang et al. (2008). Benkli et al.
(2005) reported the uptake of three types of reactive dyes i.e. CI Reactive Black 5, Red 239, and
yellow 176 onto modified zeolite. Modification of
zeolite (clinoptilolite) surface with a quaternary
amine, hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide,
had been made to improve the removal efficiency
of reactive azo dyes.
Bioadsorbent
The degradation of azo dyes by algae was evaluated by Jinqi and Houtian (1992), and it was
found that certain algae can degrade a number
of azo dyes to some extent. The reduction rate
appears to be related to the molecular structure of the dyes and the species of algae used.
The azo reduclase of algae is responsible for degrading azo dyes into aromatic amine by breaking
the azo linkage. The aromatic amine is then subjected to further metabolism by algae. The ability
of microorganisms to carry out dye decolorization
has been received by Alhassani et al. (2007), and
Banat et al. (1996). Microbial decolorization and
degradation of dyes has been seen as a costeffective method for removing organic pollutants
from the environment. Recent fundamental work
has revealed the existence of a wide variety of microorganisms capable of decolorizing an equally
wide range of dyes. In this review, they have also
examined biological decolorization of dyes used
in textile industries and report on progress and
limitations.
A simple and practical biological process for
the decolorization of colored effluent from a textile company was described by Nigam et al. (1996)
in his research paper. Potential applications of
the cultures obtained in textile dye stuff effluent
decolorization and treatment were discussed, and
they made the following outcomes; a number of
aerobic and anaerobic cultures able to decolorize
dyes in textile effluent samples were isolated after
a prolonged enrichment of the culture from textile
dye-effluent samples. The decolorization of some
component dyes of the effluent and of a mixture
of dyes was achieved under anaerobic conditions,
indicating that the bacteria were able to break the
chromophoric bonds in the dye molecules. Several
177
bacterial cultures capable of total decolorization

of some effluent component dyes under anaerobic
liquid fermentation conditions were isolated. One
of the cultures decolorized Cibacron Red (reactive dye), Remazol Golden Yellow (azo dye), and
Remazol Red (diazo dye) completely within 24
30 h fermentation process; Remazol Navy Blue
(diazo dye) and Cibacron Orange (reactive dye)
within 48 h; and Remazol Blue within 54 h. These
decolorizations were permanent with no color
change upon exposure to air: Only one dye, Remazol Turquoise Blue (a phthalocynaine dye),
was partially reversibly decolorized.
Chitin and chitosan
Chitin is a natural polysaccharide found particularly in the shells of crustaceans such as crab
and shrimp, the cuticles of insects, and the cell
walls of fungi. It is the second most abundant
polysaccharide after cellulose. It has gained importance in environmental biotechnology due to
its very good adsorption capacity towards dyes
(Annadurai et al. 1999) and metal ions. The adsorption of reactive yellow 2 (RY2) and reactive
black 5 (RB5) by chitin (Sigma C 9213) was investigated by Akkaya et al. (2007). Experimental
data obtained at different temperatures for the
adsorption of each dyestuff by chitin were applied
to pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and
Webere Morris equations, and the rate constants
of first-order adsorption (k1 ), the rate constants of
second-order adsorption (k2 ), and pore diffusion
rate constants (k p ) at these temperatures were
calculated, respectively. In addition, the adsorption isotherms of each dyestuff by chitin were
also determined at different temperatures. Physicochemical investigation on adsorption of congo
red, an anionic azo dye by chitosan hydrobeads,
has been carried out by Chatterjee et al. (2007).
The main difference between chitin and chitosan
is that the chitin has two hydroxyl groups while
chitosan has one amino group and two hydroxyl
groups in the repeating hexosamide residue. Adsorption process has been found to be dependent
on temperature with optimum activity at 30 C.
Both ionic interaction and physical forces are responsible for binding of congo red with chitosan.
The kinetic results follow pseudo-second-order
178
rate equation. Influence of pH on the adsorption

process was studied over a range of 3.0 to 12.0, and
dye concentration was measured after 10 h.
The enhancement of abilities for the removal
of reactive dyes and immobilization of tyrosinase
onto highly swollen chitosan beads was demonstrated compared to the use of common chitosan
flakes by Wu et al. (2001a, b). Chitosan was
prepared from natural cuttlebone wastes. It was
shown that the adsorption capacity of dyes at
30 C using swollen chitosan beads was around five
times greater than that using common chitosan
flakes. The adsorption of dyes using swollen beads
was faster by 1040% depending on the types of
dyes. Finally, the capacity of tyrosinase immobilization onto swollen beads was about 14 times
greater than chitosan flakes, which was reflected
by the higher yield of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine
from tyrosine and ascorbic acid in the heterogeneous catalytic system.
The sorption of reactive dye RR222, as well
as the immobilization of acid phosphatase and
glucosidase onto swollen chitosan beads was investigated by Juang et al. (2002b). In this study,
they prepared the chitosan from cuttlefish wastes
and cross-linked with different dosages of glutaraldehyde and glyoxal. The conclusions drawn
from this study was that the amounts of sorption
of solutes and the immobilization capacities of
enzymes onto the swollen chitosan beads were significantly affected by the degrees of cross-linking.
Activities and lifetimes of the immobilized enzymes were measured to evaluate the potential of
practical applications.
Chiou and Li (2003) reported batch study for
the adsorption of reactive dye (reactive red 189)
from aqueous solutions by cross-linked chitosan
beads. The ionic cross-linking reagent sodium
tripolyphosphate was used to obtain more rigid
chitosan beads. To stabilize chitosan in acid solutions, chemical cross-linking reagent epichlorohydrin (ECH), glutaraldehyde, and ethylene glycol
diglycidyl ether was used and ECH shows a
higher adsorption capacity. In this study, Langmuir model agrees very well with experimental
data, and its calculated maximum monolayer adsorption capacity has very large value of 1,802
1,840 g kg1 at pH 3.0, 30 C. The kinetics of
the adsorption with respect to the initial dye con-
centration, temperature, pH, ionic strength, and

wet/dry beads were investigated. The pseudo-firstorder, second-order kinetic models, and intraparticle diffusion model were used to describe the
kinetic data, and the rate constants were evaluated. The dynamical data fit well with the secondorder kinetic model, except for the dry beads
fitting better with the first-order model. The adsorption capacity increases largely with decreasing
solution pH or with increasing initial dye concentration. The desorption data shows that the
removal percent of dye RR 189 from the crosslinked chitosan beads is 63% in NaOH solutions
at pH 10.0, at 30 C. The desorbed chitosan beads
can be reused to adsorb the dye and to reach
the same capacity as that before desorption. In
another paper Chiou et al. (2004) also reported
about the adsorption of four reactive dyes Reactive Blue 2, Reactive Red 2, Reactive Yellow
2, Reactive Yellow 86, three acidic dyes Acid
Orange 12, Acid Red 14, Acid orange 7, and one
direct dye direct Red 81. The adsorption capacities had very large values of 1,9112,498 g kg1 at
pH 34, 30 C, which were 3.415.0 and 2.727.4
times those of the commercially activated carbon
and chitin, respectively. Chitosan was also tested
as an adsorbent (Wong et al. 2004; Wu et al. 2000;
Wang and Wang 2007).
Fungi
In the recent years, there has been an intensive research in fungal decolorization of dye
wastewater. It is becoming a promising alternative to replace or supplement present treatment
processes. Fu and Viraraghavan (2001) in their reviewed results said that they have examine various
fungi, living or dead cells, which are capable of
decolorizing dye wastewaters, discuss various
mechanisms involved, report some elution and
regeneration methods for fungal biomass, summarize the present pretreatment methods for increasing the biosorption capacity of fungal biomass,
and discuss the effects of various factors on deccolorization. From these studies, they made the
following conclusions: (a) there are many fungal
stains capable of decolorization dye wastewater.
There is a need to develop these fungal strains
which can grow in simple, inexpensive medium,
and have high production rate and possesses high

biosorption capacity; (b) decolorization by living
cells involves more complex mechanisms such as
intracellular, extracellular oxidases, and biosorption, than by dead cells. The process involving
living cells is closely related to the operational
conditions, such as nutrition requirements, the
influent concentration, and toxicity. In contrast,
decolorization involving dead biomass is easier
to operate, and dead cells may possess higher
biosorption capacity in certain conditions. They
can be effective biosorbents. Some bacterial and
fungal species have been reported that are capable of biodegradation of dyes. The present study
reports preliminary findings on the removal of
azo dyes from solutions using white rot basidiomycetes. The ability of four different species
of white rot fungi i.e. Coriolus versicolor, Termetomyces sp., Pleurotus ostreatus, and Schizophyllum commune to remove azo dyes from aqueous
solutions were evaluated in batch culture under
laboratory conditions by Nasreen et al. (2007). C.
versicolor was found to be the most efficient color
removing species for the three dyes investigated.
Maximum removal capacity of C. versicolor for
acid green, disperse red, and basic orange was
98%, 76%, and 61%, respectively. Glucose as the
carbon source in growth medium is more suitable for the decoloration of dyes in comparison
to starch at the same concentration. Preliminary
studies indicate that C. versicolor has the potential
to remove color from aqueous solutions and may
be used as an efficient biological agent for the
decoloration of dyes in industrial effluents. The
two species of white rot fungi were evaluated
for their ability to decolorize Blue CA, Black
B133, and Corazol Violet SR by Sathiya moorthi
et al. (2007). Trametes hirsute and Pleurotus
f lorida displayed the greatest extent of decolorization. Laccase is the ligneolytic enzyme from
these fungi. The laccase activity was measured
using both solid and aqueous state assays. The dye
absorption ability of the mycelium was studied
using appropriate medium containing dyes at the
concentration of 75 mg L1 . The effective decolorization of Blue CA and Corazol Violet SR dyes
by both microorganisms were observed in the fifth
day of incubation. Further decolorization activity
was verified using various concentrations of dyes
179
such as 25, 50 and 75 mg L1 . Maximum decolorization was observed in Blue CA and Corazol
Violet SR dyes. The effluent from the dye house
was treated using both organisms with different
concentration of glucose (1% and 2%). Effective
decolorization was found to be more by the P.
f lorida in 2% glucose.
Swamy and Ramsay (1999) reported five
species of white rot fungi for their ability to decolorize Amaranth, Remazol Black B, Remazol
Orange, Remazol Brilliant Blue, Reactive Blue,
and Tropaeolin O in agar plates, Bjerkandera sp.
BOS55, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, and Trametes versicolor displayed the greatest extent of
decoloration. In static aqueous culture, the three
cultures formed fungal mats which did not decolorize any dye beyond some mycelial sorption.
When agitated at 200 rpm, the biomass grew as
mycelial pellets. Bjerkandera sp. BOS55 pellets
decolorized only Amaranth, Remazol Black B,
and Remazol Orange. P. chrysosporium and T.
versicolor pellets were capable of decolorizing
most dyes with decoloration by T. versicolor being several times more rapid. Batch cultures of
Bjerkandera sp. BOS55 and P. chrysosporium had
a limited ability to decolorize repeated dye additions; however, T. versicolor rapidly decolorized
repeated additions of the different dyes and dye
mixtures without any visual sorption of any dye
to the pellets. The choice of buffer had a profound effect on pH stability upon dye addition
and, consequently, decoloration. The use of 2,29dimethylsuccinic acid allowed for excellent pH
control and resulted in high decoloration ability.
Fu and Viraraghavan (2002a) reported some
elution and regeneration methods for fungal biomass and summarize the pretreatment methods
for fungal biomass. Kaushik and Malik (2009) in
their study conclude that the fungal decolorization
has a great potential to be developed further as
a decentralized wastewater treatment technology
for small textile or dyeing units. However, further research work is required to study the toxicity of the metabolites of dye degradation and
the possible fate of the utilized biomass in order to ensure the development of an eco-friendly
technology. Wesenberg et al. (2003) summarize
the state-of-the-art in the research and prospective use of white-rot fungi and their enzymes
180
(lignin-modifying enzymes) for the treatment of

industrial effluents particularly dye containing
effluents. The decolorization and detoxification
potential of white-rot fungi can be harnessed
thanks to emerging knowledge of the physiology
of these organisms as well as of the biocatalysis
and stability characteristics of their enzymes. This
knowledge will need to be transformed into reliable and robust waste treatment processes.
Peat
The suitability of peat as a natural adsorbent
is supported by a number of studies which
have reported the successful treatment of many
different types of effluent. Peat compares favorably with other adsorbents such as carbon, silica
and alumina, both in terms of adsorption capacity
and cost (Allen et al. 1994; Viraraghavan and
Ayyaswami 1987). Peat has been widely used in
the treatment of wastewaters. The potential of
using peat in wastewater treatment is reviewed
by Couillard (1994) with special attention to the
following topics: (1) the properties of peat; (2)
the pretreatment of peat; (3) the principles involved in the removal of wastewater pollutants
by peat; and (4) the applications of peat to the
removal of impurities from wastewater. Peat is
partially fossilized plant matter, usually of a dark
brown color. It is formed in poorly oxygenated
wetlands, where the rate of accumulation of plant
matter is greater than that of decomposition.
The sorption of three basic dyes, namely Basic
blue 3, Basic yellow 21, and Basic red 22, onto
peat is reported by Allen et al. (2004). Equilibrium sorption isotherms have been measured
for the three single-component systems. Equilibrium was achieved after 21 days. The experimental isotherm data were analyzed using Langmuir,
Freundlich, and RedlichPeterson, Tempkin, and
Toth isotherm equation. The RedlichPeterson
model also yielded the best fit to experimental
data for all three dyes using the nonlinear error
functions. An extended Langmuir model has been
used to predict the isotherm data for the binary
systems using the single component data. The
correlation between theoretical and experimental
data had only limited success due to competitive
and interactive effects between the dyes and the
dyesurface interactions. The adsorption of Telon

Blue on peat has been investigated by Poots et al.
(1976).
The sorption of two dyes, namely, Basic Blue
69 and Acid Blue 25, onto peat has been studied by Ho and McKay (1998b) in terms of
pseudo-second-order and first-order mechanisms
for chemical sorption as well as an intra-particle
diffusion mechanism process. The batch sorption
process, based on the assumption of a pseudosecond-order mechanism has been developed to
predict the rate constant of sorption, the equilibrium constant and initial sorption rate with the
effect of agitation, initial dye concentration, and
temperature. Activation energy of sorption has
also been evaluated with the pseudo-second-order
rate constants. A comparison of the equilibrium
sorption capacity evaluated has been made from
pseudo-second-order rate constant. The adsorptive capacity of sphagnum moss peat for a range
of adsorbates has been studied by Allen (1987).
The adsorption of acid dyes, basic dyes, and zinc
ions is reported. The adsorption isotherms are described by means of the Freundlich and Langmuir
isotherms. High adsorptive capacities for some basic dyes were found. Modified peat was prepared
by mixing thoroughly raw peat with sulfuric acid,
and modified peatresin particle was obtained, by
mixing modified peat with solutions of polyvinyl
alcohol and formaldehyde. Sun and Yang (2003)
reported the adsorption of Basic Magenta and
Basic Brilliant Green onto modified peatresin
particle.
Rhizopus
Rhizopus is a genus of molds that includes cosmopolitan filamentous fungi found in soil, decaying fruit and vegetables, animal feces, and old
bread. Aksu and Tezer (2000) demonstrated uptake of 588.2 mg g1 of reactive black 5 per g using
Rhizopus arrhizus biomass. The fungal biomass
exhibited the highest dye uptake capacity at 35 C,
at the initial pH value of 2.0, and at the initial
dye concentration of 800 mg L1 . OMahony et
al. (2002) also reported the biosorption of three
reactive dyes cibacron red, remazol blue, remazol orange on R. arrhizus biomass. The biomass
exhibited maximum dye uptake at pH 2 due to its
181
Table 5 Reviewed results representing the adsorption capacity of bioadsorbents for the adsorption of dyes and their
optimized pH values for maximum adsorption
Adsorbent
Dye
pH
Adsorption capacity
References
Chitin and Chitosan

Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitosan bead (crab)
Chitosan flake (crab)
Chitosan bead (lobster)
Chitosan flake (lobster)
Chitosan bead (shrimp)
Chitosan flake (shrimp)
Giant duckweed
(Spirodela polyrrhiza)
White rot Fungi (C. versicolor)
White rot Fungi (C. versicolor)
White rot Fungi ( C. versicolor)
Modified fungal biomass
(Aspergillus niger)
Peat
Peat
Peat
Peat
Biomass (Rhizopus arrhizus)
Yeast (Candida sp.)
Yeast (C. lipolytica)
Yeast (C. tropicalis)
Yeast (C. quilliermendii)
Yeast (C. utilis)
Native white rote fungus
(Trametes versicolor)
Heat-treated white rote fungus
(Trametes versicolor)
Macrocystis integrifolia Bory
Macrocystis integrifolia Bory
Lessonia nigrescens Bory
Lessonia nigrescens Bory
Kudzu (Peuraria lobata ohwi)
Kudzu (Peuraria lobata ohwi)
Chitosan swollen bead
Acid green 25
Acid orange 10
Acid orange 12
Acid red 18
Acid orange 12
Acid red 14
Acid orange 7
Direct red 81
Reactive blue 2
Reactive red 2
Reactive yellow 2
Reactive yellow 86
Direct red 28
Reactive red 222
Reactive red 222
Reactive red 222
Reactive red 222
Reactive red 222
Reactive red 222
Methylene blue
4.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
3.0
3.0
4.0
4.0
3.0
3.0
4.0
3.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
9.0
645.1 mg g1
922.9 mg g1
973.3 mg g1
693.2 mg g1
1954 mg g1
1940 mg g1
1940 mg g1
2383 mg g1
2498 mg g1
2422 mg g1
2436 mg g1
1911 mg g1
81.23 mg g1
1106 mg g1
293 mg g1
1037 mg g1
398 mg g1
1026 mg g1
494 mg g1
144.93 mg g1
Wong et al. (2004)

Wong et al. (2004)
Wong et al. (2004)
Wong et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Chiou et al. (2004)
Wang and Wang (2007)
Wu et al. (2000)
Wu et al. (2000)
Wu et al. (2000)
Wu et al. (2000)
Wu et al. (2000)
Wu et al. (2000)
Waranusantigul et al. (2003)
Acid green
Disperse red
Basic orange
Disperse red 1
Acid blue 29
Acid blue 25
Basic blue 69
Basic violet 14
Basic green 4
Reactive blue 19
Reactive orange 16
Reactive red 4
Reactive black 5
Remazol blue
Remazol blue
Remazol blue
Remazol blue
Remazol blue
Direct blue 1
Direct red 128
Direct blue 1
Direct red 128
2 nitrophenol
2 chlorophenol
2 nitrophenol
2 chlorophenol
Basic yellow 21
Basic red 22
Reactive red 222
Reactive blue 222
7.0
7.0
7.0
4.0
4.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
6.0
3.0
6.0
3.0
4.0
4.0
3.0
3.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
98.00 mg g1
76.00 mg g1
61.00 mg g1
5.59 mg g1
45.96 mg g1
12.7 mg g1
195 mg g1
400 mg g1
350 mg g1
90 mg g1
190 mg g1
150 mg g1
500.7 mg g1
167.0 mg g1
250.0 mg g1
182.0 mg g1
154.0 mg g1
114.0 mg g1
101.1 mg g1
189.7 mg g1
152.3 mg g1
225.4 mg g1
97.37 mg g1
24.18 mg g1
71.28 mg g1
17.33 mg g1
860.0 mg g1
720.0 mg g1
1653.0 mg g1
1009.0 mg g1
Nasreen et al. (2007)

Fu and Viraraghavan (2002a)
Fu and Viraraghavan (2002a)
Ho and McKay (1998b)
Ho and McKay (1998b)
Sun and Yang (2003)
Sun and Yang (2003)
OMahony et al. (2002)
Aksu and Tezer (2000)
Aksu and Dnmez (2003)
and Arca (2007)
Bayramoglu
and Arca (2007)
Bayramoglu
and Arca (2007)
Bayramoglu
and Arca (2007)
Bayramoglu
Allen et al. (2003)
Allen et al. (2003)
Wu et al. (2001a)
Wu et al. (2001a)
182
Table 5 (continued)
Adsorbent
Chitosan flake
Chitosan flake
Chitosan flake
Chitosan BA
Chitosan BA
Chitosan DBA
Chitosan DBA
Chitosan PA
Chitosan PA
Chitosan CA
Chitosan CA
Cross linked chitosan beads
Non-cross-linked chitosan beads
Dried seagrape
(Caulerpa lentillifera)
Dried seagrape
Dried seagrape
Eggshell membrane
Eggshell membrane
Chitosan
Chitosan
Chitosan
Peat
Peat
Peat
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Fungus (Aspergillus niger)
Chitin gels
Chitin gels
Peat
Peat
Peat
Peat
Peat
Hen feather
Dried Chlorella vulgaris (an alga)
Peat
Peat
Peat
Chitin
Chitin
Peat
Peat
White rot fungi
White rot fungi
Dye
pH
Adsorption capacity
g1
References
Reactive yellow 145

Reactive red 222
Reactive blue 222
Reactive yellow 145
Crystal violet
Bismarck brown Y
Crystal violet
Bismarck brown Y
Crystal violet
Bismarck brown Y
Crystal violet
Bismarck brown Y
Reactive red 189
Reactive red 189
Astrazon blue FGRL
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
9.0
7.0
9.0
7.0
9.0
7.0
9.0
3.0
6.0
6.0
885.0 mg
339.0 mg g1
199.0 mg g1
188.0 mg g1
44.76 mmol kg1
45.77 mmol kg1
66.76 mmol kg1
67.39 mmol kg1
99.70 mmol kg1
101.09 mmol kg1
104.69 mmol kg1
107.28 mmol kg1
1936.0 mg g1
1189.0 mg g1
80.7 mg g1
Wu et al. (2001a)
Wu et al. (2001a)
Wu et al. (2001a)
Wu et al. (2001a)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chao et al. (2004)
Chiou and Li (2002)
Chiou and Li (2002)
Punjongharn et al. (2008)
Astrazon red GTLM
6.0
113.6 mg g1
Astrazon golden yellow
6.0
35.5 mg g1
Direct red 80
Acid blue 25
Reactive red 222
Reactive yellow 145
Reactive blue 222
Basic blue 3
Basic red 22
Basic yellow 21
Remazol blue
Remazol black B
Remazol red RB
Congo red
Acid blue 74
Reactive violet 5
Basic blue 41
Acid blue 25
Basic blue 3
Basic yellow 21
Basic red 22
Malachite Green
Remazol black B
Remazol red RR
Remazol golden yellow
Acid blue 25
Basic blue 3
Basic blue 69
Reactive yellow 2
Reactive black 5
Acid blue 25
Basic blue 69
Amarant
Remazol black B
2.0
2.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
6.0
3.3
3.3
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
5.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
3.5
5.5
5.5
8.0
6.0
5.0
5.0
4.9
5.0
0.124 mmol g1
1.736 mmol g1
185.0 mg g1
78.0 mg g1
41.0 mg g1
427.52 mg g1
248.33 mg g1
306.25 mg g1
84.0 mg g1
88.5 mg g1
48.8 mg g1
14.72 mg g1
40.0 mg g1
32.5 mg g1
536.6 mg g1
45.0 mg g1
555.61 mg g1
666.56 mg g1
312.50 mg g1
2.9 105 mol g1
555.60 mg g1
196.10 mg g1
71.90 mg g1
35.00 mg g1
410.00 mg g1
605.00 mg g1
2.83 mg g1
1.88 mg g1
14.40 mg g1
168.00 mg g1
50.00 mg g1
60.00 mg g1
Arami et al. (2006)

Arami et al. (2006)
Wu et al. (2001b)
Wu et al. (2001b)
Wu et al. (2001b)
Allen et al. (1988a)
Aksu (2003)
Aksu (2003)
Aksu (2003)
Fu and Viraraghavan (2002b)
Vachoud et al. (2001)
Vachoud et al. (2001)
Liversidge et al. (1997)
Allen et al. (1988b)
Allen et al. (2004)
Allen et al. (2004)
Allen et al. (2004)
Mittal (2006)
Allen (1987)
Allen (1987)
Allen (1987)
Akkaya et al. (2007)
Akkaya et al. (2007)
Ho and McKay (2003)
Ho and McKay (2003)
Swamy and Ramsay (1999)
183
Table 5 (continued)
Adsorbent
White rot fungi
White rot fungi
White rot fungi
White rot fungi
Peat
Chitosan
Dye
Remazol orange
Remazol brilliant blue
Reactive blue
Tropaeolin O
Acid blue 25
Acid red 73
pH
4.8
4.7
4.6
4.7
7.0
7.0
positively charged nature at acidic pH and the anionic nature of the reactive dyes. Reactive orange
16 dye was adsorbed most effectively to a maximum of approximately 200 mg g1 . Chitin and
chitosan exhibits strong affinity for acid/reactive
dyes, and peat is shown to be a particularly
effective adsorbent for basic dyes (Table 5).
Conclusions
After reviewing the collected data, we have made
some conclusions as discussed in the following
paragraphs:
The treatment of industrial effluent that contains the large number of organic dyes by adsorption process, using these easily available low
cost adsorbents, such as natural materials, waste
materials from industrial and agriculture, plant
waste, fruit waste, and bioadsorbents are an
interesting alternative to the traditionally available aqueous waste processing techniques (chemical coagulation/flocculation, ozonation, oxidation,
photodegradation, etc.). Undoubtedly, low-cost
adsorbents offer a lot of promising benefits for
commercial purposes in the future.
As we knew that the distribution of size, shape,
and volume of voids species in the porous materials is directly related to the ability to perform the adsorption application, there are only
a few papers where they have studied the morphology of the adsorbent. The comparison of adsorption performance of different adsorbents not
only depend on the experimental conditions and
analytical methods (column, reactor, and batch
techniques) but also depends on the surface morphology of the adsorbent, surface area, particle
size and shape, micropore and mesopore volume,
Adsorption capacity
g1
60.00 mg
40.00 mg g1
20.00 mg g1
20.00 mg g1
43.49 mol g1
728.2 mg g1
References
Poots et al. (1976)
Wong et al. (2004)
etc. Many researchers have made comparison between the adsorption capacities of the adsorbents,
but they have nowhere discussed anything about
the role of morphology of the adsorbent, even in
case of the inorganic material where it plays a
major role in the adsorption process.
The pH value of the solution is an important
factor which must be considered during designing adsorption process. The pH has two kinds
of influences on dye: an effect on the solubility
and speciation of dye in the solution. It is well
known that surface charge of adsorbent can be
modified by changing the pH of the solution and
the chemical species in the solution depend on
this parameter. The high adsorption of cationic or
acidic dyes at higher pH may be due to the surface
of adsorbent becomes negative which enhances
the positively charged dyes through electrostatic
force of attraction and vice versa in case of anionic or basic dyes. In case of adsorbents obtained
from the industries and agriculture by-products,
fruit, and plant waste, the literature reveals that
maximum removal of dyes from aqueous waste
can be achieved in the pH range of 58. But the
major role of pH was seen in the paper in which
inorganic and bioadsorbents are used for the dye
waste treatment.
We also agree with the discussions made by
Crini (2006) in the review article that the adsorption process will provide an attractive technology
if the low-cost sorbent is ready for use. However,
physical and chemical processes such as drying,
autoclaving, crosslinking reactions, or contacting
with organic or inorganic chemicals proposed for
improving the sorption capacity and the selectivity. For example, for the industrial application
of biosorption, immobilization of biomass is necessary (Aksu 2005). These pretreatment methods are not cost effective at large scale. The
184
production of chitosan also involves a chemical

deacetylation process. Commercial production of
chitosan by deacetylation of crustacean chitin with
strong alkali appears to have limited potential
for industrial acceptance because of difficulties
in processing, particularly with the large amount
of waste concentrated alkaline solution causing
environmental pollution. However, several yeasts
and filamentous fungi have been recently reported
as containing chitin and chitosan in their cell wall
and septa. They can be readily cultured in simple nutrients and used as a source of chitosan.
With advances in fermentation technology chitosan preparation from fungal cell walls could
become an alternative route for the production of
this biopolymer via an ecofriendly pathway.
At last, we have tried to make a comparison
between the adsorption capacities of adsorbents
for three commonly used dyes, methylene blue
(Fig. 1), basic blue (Fig. 2), and acid blue (Fig. 3).
On analyzing these results, we have reached to a
conclusion that there is a lack of data concerning
the reproducibility of the adsorption isotherms; it
may be due to the differences in the physical and
chemical characteristic adsorbents obtained from

different resources and locations. We have seen
that peat shows different adsorption capacities for
single dye (Figs. 2 and 3) (Allen 1987; Allen et al.
1988a, b; Ho and McKay 2003; Poots et al. 1976).
In view of industrial developments of the various
kinds of adsorbents described in the literature, the
physical and chemical stability of the materials
and the reproducibility of the adsorption properties are of great concern. Although commercially activated carbon show maximum adsorption
potential for methylene blue (Fig. 1), the bark
(McKay et al. 1999) and activated carbon obtained
from plum kernels (Tseng 2007) may prove to be
an important alternative for the methylene blue
removal from aqueous waste.
The common adsorbent, commercially available activated carbon has good capacity for the
removal of pollutants. But its main disadvantages
are the high price of treatment and difficult regeneration, which increases the cost of wastewater
treatment. Thus, there is a demand for other adsorbents, which are of inexpensive material and do
not require any expensive additional pretreatment
Fig. 1 Comparison of adsorption capacities of different adsorbents for the removal of cationic dye methylene blue
Saw dust- oak
Fig. 3 Comparison of adsorption capacities for the adsorption of acid blue (AB) dyes onto the different adsorbents
Peat
Peat
Peat
Chitin gels
Peat
Fungal
Bentonite - DTMA
Peat
BB BB 9 BB 3 BB BB 3 BB BB 3 BB 3 BB
69
69
69
41
BB
69
Peat
Peat
Peat
Peat
Peat
Silica
Bentonite
Peat
BB
69
Bentonite - Na
BB
69
Anion clay hydrotalcite
Clay
BB
41
Clay
Wood
BB
41
Clay
AGAP-P-N-800
BB
41
Clay
Wood
Pine sawdust (raw)
Saw dust- pitch pine
AGAP1000
AGAP800
BB
41
AGAP-P-800
AGAP
AGAP1
BB
41
Saw dust- cherry
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
BB
41
Saw dust-Walnut
Pith
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
Banana pith
Jack fruit peel
Slag
BB BB 3 BB
69
69
Bagasse pith
Bagasse pith
BB
69
Linseed oil cake
BB BB 9 BB 9 BB 9 BB 9 BB
69
41
Slag
AC4.0h
BB
69
AC2.7h
BB
69
Linseed oil cake
AC1.5h
BB
69
Cotton waste
BB
Activated carbon
Activated carbon - RHZ
Adsorption capacity (mg g-1)

Adsorption capacity (mg g-1)

185
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
Fig. 2 Comparison of adsorption capacities for the adsorption of basic blue (BB) dyes onto the different adsorbents
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB AB
80 25 264 80 80 80 80 80 80 29 113 74 74 74 25 114 25 25 25 25 25 256 25 25
9
29 193 193 29 25 74 25 25 25
186
step. So now, most of the adsorption studies have

been focused on untreated industrial, agricultural,
fruit, plant wastes because of low cost, easy availability, easy to handle. But we found that only a
few untreated adsorbents show good adsorption
potential (Tables 1, 2, 3, and 5), and performance
of these adsorbents has been remarkably affected
upon physical and chemical treatment. Pretreatment of plant wastes can remove soluble organic
compounds and increase chelating efficiency and
in case of cellulose base adsorbents pretreatment
can also remove lignin, hemicelluloses, decrease
cellulose crystallinity and increase the porosity or
surface area. The excellent ability and economic
promise of the activated carbon prepared from
by-products after physical and chemical treatment
have been recently presented and well described
by the researches. The non-conventional activated
carbons exhibited good adsorption properties and
characteristics as reported in Table 1. However,
the adsorption characteristics of carbon depend
on the source of raw material, the treatment conditions, activation time, etc.
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Environ Monit Assess (2011) 183:151195