Solid wastes from agro-industrial operations can be recycled as non-conventional adsorbents if they are inert and harmless and reduce the cost of wastewater treatment. Tendu leaf
Diospyros melanoxylon
is the second largest forest product in India after timber and is exclusively used in making local cigarette called
Bidi. Waste leaf cutting remaining after making cigarette was used in present study as a biosorbent for the removal of Congo red dye from aqueous solution. It was treated with hydrogen peroxide to obtain biosorbent with increased adsorption capacity. Batch type experiments were conducted to study the influence of different parameters such as pH, initial dye concentration and dosage of adsorbent on biosorption evaluated. The adsorption occured very fast initially and attains equilibrium within 60 min at pH= 6.2 and the equilibrium attained faster after hydrogen peroxide modification. Kinetic studies showed that the biosorption of Congo red on tendu waste followed pseudo-second-order rate equation. The data fitted well to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Comparison was done on the extent of biosorption between untreated and treated forms of the tendu waste. The maximum adsorption capacity for untreated tendu waste was found to be 46.95 mg/g, which was enhanced by 2.8 times after hydrogen peroxide treatment and was found to be 134.4 mg/g. The adsorption process was in conformity with Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms for Congo red adsorption from aqueous solution. The study demonstrated use of milder chemical treatment of tendu waste to obtain a biosorbent with enhanced dye removal capacity.
