Abstract

The objectives of this work were to compare the process of adsorption of Methylene blue (MB) with two types of adsorbents. Rice husk ash (RHA) and Peanut Shell ash (PSA) have been used to study the adsorption of MB. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report to use PSA as adsorbent for MB removal.The effect of different parameters such as initial pH, contact time, adsorbent dose, dye concentration were studied. The adsorption % efficiencies of Methylene Blue on RHA and PSA were 84.5 % and 83.5 % respectively (in 120 minutes on 0.2 g adsorbent). The results further revealed that adsorption of MB on PSA and RHA occur by both physisorption and chemisorptions processes. The comparative studies revealed that both the adsorbents have similar removal efficiencies in 120 minutes. However, RHA has faster rate of adsorption as compared with PSA. Therefore, it is concluded that both the RHA and PSA are good adsorbents for the removal of MB in water.