COLOUR REMOVAL FROM GROUND WATER USING ADSORPTION

Abstract

Dyes and pigments are the visible compounds released from the various chemical industries. Even minor release into the environment may lead to appearance of colour in the water bodies. One such pigment is melanoidin, which is released by the sugar industry. Melanoidin (mol wt-15000) is a product of Maillard reaction, a complex non-enzymatic browning reaction which occurs during heating of sugar and amines. Melanoidin is detected using FTIR in ground water. A synthetic melanoidin is used as a model for the colorant in the ground water which is released from the sugar industry to study the mechanism of colour removal using adsorption on saw dust and activated carbon. The various factors which have been optimised during this experimental work are pH, temperature, mass of adsorbent, initial concentration and shaking speed. The equilibrium adsorption capacities, fitted with Langmuir and freundlich models increased with temperature. Based on the optimum condition a continuous system is designed to make a more realistic model