Biosorption of Reactive Brilliant X-3B by dried activated sludge

The biosorption of Reactive Brilliant X-3B onto dried activated sludge in a batch system with respect to the temperature and initial pH was investigated. The adsorption reaction is pH dependent with higher removal at low pH values. The kinetics of adsorption were found to be second order and adsorption rate constants increased with increasing temperature. The activation energy of sorption has also been evaluated with the pseudo-second order rate constants. The equilibrium data fitted very well to both the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. The results indicate that dried activated sludge could be employed as low cost alternatives to commercial activated carbon in wastewater treatment for the removal of color and dyes.