The removal of methyl orange from water using biochar derived from a blend of carrot and potato peels
Patience Mapule Thabede, Ntaote David Shooto
Abstract
The pollution of water from dyes released into the environment is a worldwide problem. To resolve this problem, a mixture of vegetable waste from carrot and potato peels was used to adsorb methyl orange (MO) from water. Raw carrot and potato peels were mixed and then carbonized at 500℃ for 30 and 60 min to obtain CBP-30 and CBP-60, respectively. Characterization of CBP-30 and CBP-60 by SEM, FTIR, and XRD techniques showed that the morphology had a rough surface texture and showed functional groups such as -OH, C C, -C-O-C, and C-O on the surface of the adsorbents. Kinetic analysis exhibited high correlation with the pseudo-first-order model with R² > 0.99 for both adsorbents, indicating that physisorption occurred. Isotherm studies confirmed the Freundlich model fit, suggesting multilayer sorption. The CBP-60 adsorbent displayed higher sorption performance for the uptake of methyl orange than the CBP-30 adsorbent and showed to be a prospective approach for the sorption of dyes. The experimental maximum sorption capacities for CBP-60 and CBP-30 were 56.41 and 53.02 mg/g, respectively.