Removal of methylene blue by lava adsorption and catalysis oxidation

Adsorption has been found to be effective for the removal of dyes from effluent; however, the contaminant will cause secondary pollution if it is not properly treated. In this paper, the ability of lava as a low-cost adsorbent and catalyst for the removal of a commercial dye, Methylene Blue (MB), from aqueous solution has been investigated under various experimental conditions. It was found that lava had a high efficiency (more than 98%) for MB removal by adsorption. The adsorption equilibrium data can be fitted well by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. The adsorption kinetics was shown to be pseudo-second-order. After adsorption the contaminant could be catalysis oxidized by lava with the aids of H2O2 and ultrasound. The result showed that 95% of the MB could be decomposed in 100 min with the aid of ultrasound at 85 W/cm2. Overall, this study demonstrates lava as a promising material for wastewater treatment to remove and decompose dyes in a single treatment step.