Kinetic and equilibrium isotherm studies of ammoniacal nitrogen adsorption onto sugarcane bagasse from wastewater

In this research, Sugarcane Bagasse (SB), an agricultural waste, available in large quantities was used as low-cost adsorbent for removal of ammoniacal nitrogen form the wastewater. Batch operation was used to study the equilibrium behavior of the SB. Kinetic and isotherm studies were carried out by considering the effects of various parameters, such as pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage, temperature, particle size and agitation rate. The maximum adsorption was attained at the various optimum parameters. The obtained materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy analysis and Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The equilibrium data for the adsorption of ammoniacal nitrogen on SB was tested with various adsorption isotherm models such as Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin. The Langmuir isotherm model is found to be the most suitable one for the adsorption and the maximum adsorption capacity obtained is 97%. Adsorption kinetics data were tested using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order. Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption followed a pseudo-second-order reaction. The results indicate that SB can be an attractive option for ammoniacal nitrogen removal from industrial wastewaters.