Adsorption of Textile Wastewater on Sawdust

ABSTRACT : Sawdust is considered one of the cheapest and abundantly available adsorbents, and it is not necessary to regenerate. Thespent sawdust can be incinerated or reused as a fuel. The sawdust adsorption can be applied to the removal of color and metal cationsfrom the wastewater. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adsorptive capacities of sawdust with respect to color, COD, SS, turbi-dity, metal cation from textile wastewater. Langmuir, Freundlich, BET and Sips adsorption isotherm were obtained for the sawdust adsorp-tion of Fe(III). The effects of particle size and amount of sawdust on the adsorption of Fe(III) were also studied. COD, SS, color, turbidity and Fe(III) removal efficiencies were examined at the continuous fixed-bed adsorption test. It was showed the removal effi-ciencies of SS 50.0%, Fe(III) 25.0%, turbidity 79.4%, color 48.6% and COD 50.9%. In addition, the changes of surface structure betweenbefore and after adsorption were investigated through SEM analysis. It is confirmed that the waste sawdust can be successfully used as an adsorbent for wastewater treatment.