UTILIZATION OF UNWANTED TERRESTRIAL WEEDS FOR REMOVAL OF DYES

Human welfare is adversely affected by unwanted and undesirable plants, which convert the useable land into a wasteland. The present study was an attempt to utilize unwanted weeds as a resource with the objective to evaluate the removal efficiency of two low cost adsorbents named as Raw Parthenium hysterophorus (RPH) and Raw Saccharum munja (RSM) for adsorption of dyes like Congo red (CR), Methylene blue (MB) and Crystal violet (CV). The batch study was carried out to study the impacts of various parameters like pH, adsorbent dose, initial dye concentration, contact time and shaking speed. The maximum adsorption for CR was 86% by RPH, MB was 98% and CV was 97% by RSM at dose 1g/100ml, 150rpm, dye concentration 50ppm, time 120 minutes and temperature 25C̊ but optimized pH was varied according to dyes and type of adsorbents, it was ranged from 4 to 10. Adsorption isotherms were applied on the experimental data and found to be Freundlich isotherm was well fitted for RSM and RPH during MB dyes adsorption (r= 0.892 & 0.858) as compared to CR and CV dyes. Low-cost adsorbents have potential to adsorb dyes from wastewater and show applicability in wastewater treatment process.