Bokbunja seed wastes from a wine manufacturing industry were used to
prepare carbon for the purpose of using it as an adsorbent for the
removal of Reactive Blue 4 from aqueous solutions. A part of prepared
carbon was treated with n-hexane to remove the seed oil present in
large amounts in Bokbunja seeds. It was found that the hexane treated
carbon was more efficient in removing the dye from aqueous solutions.
Optimization of process parameters showed that pH 2 and contact time of
120 min was favorable for maximum adsorption. Langmuir and Khan
isotherm models were applied to comprehend the adsorption process.
Kinetic data showed that pseudo-first order model was a better fit than
the pseudo-second order model. Alkaline pH favored desorption. Among
the various desorption medium tested, acetone and ethanol showed
promising results thus enabling the reuse of the carbon for next
adsorption cycle. The study justifies the efforts to minimize the
wastes by firstly using a winery waste as adsorbent and later reusing
the same for the next cycle of adsorption in addition to recycling the
desorption medium while simultaneously recovering the adsorbed dyes