Browsing by Author "Tibenda, Christine"

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    Hydrothermal Activation of Pineapple Peelings for the Adsorption and Kinetics of Methylene Blue Dye
    (Busitema University, 2024) Tibenda, Christine
    The unavailability of clean drinking water is one of the significant health issues in modern times. Industrial dyes are one of the dominant chemicals that make water unfit for drinking. Among these dyes, methylene blue (MB) is toxic, carcinogenic, and non-biodegradable and can cause a severe threat to human health and environmental safety. It is usually released in natural water sources from effluents of mainly textile industries, hospitals and others which becomes a health threat to human beings and living organisms hence, there is a need to develop an environmentally friendly, efficient technology for removing MB from wastewater. This study was aimed at developing an inexpensive and effective adsorbent for removing MB from waste water to the safety limit of at most 5 mk/kg where the toxicity of methylene blue dye can induce fatal serotonin toxicity in humans. Pineapple peelings obtained from Nagongera market, Tororo district were hydrothermally activated in an autoclave reactor using potassium hydroxide as the modifier to form the hydrochar (HAPPC) and effectiveness in adsorbing MB was confirmed by batch adsorption studies. The adsorption data were analyzed by Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms and kinetic models. The adsorption on the HAPPC obeyed the pseudo second order kinetic model. The adsorption capacity HAPPC was studied with variation in size of adsorbent dose, size particles, pH, adsorbent dose and initial MB concentration. The extent of adsorption of MB by HAPPC adsorbent increased with increase in adsorbent dose, contact time and pH until an optimum value but decreased with the increase in particle size and initial MB concentration. In future, the potential HAPPC adsorbent can be used to design both industrial and household units for effective and economical MB removal.