Fixed bed adsorption of acid dyes onto activated carbon

The context of the study here is the adsorption of acid dyes from wastewater arising from a nylon carpet printing plant which currently receives no treatment. Since nylon is a particularly difficult fibre to dye, acid dyes are required for successful coloration. However, their presence, in high concentrations, in aqueous effluent arising from the plant can create major problems with respect to disposal. A treatment method based on adsorption onto granular activated carbon (GAC F400) in a fixed column configuration is described and breakthrough data of the dyes determined. The breakthrough data were correlated using a model based on liquid and pore diffusion with a good fit of experimental results obtained. Trends in the effective diffusivity used in the model correlated with other authors. A slight decrease in effective diffusivity was found with decrease in particle size and was attributed to interactions between the relatively large molecular sized dye and the microspore structure found in granular activated carbon.