Abstract:
Adsorption of Reactive black 5 dye currently used in textile industries was investigated
using Macadamia Seed Husks (MSH) from a local Macadamia nut processing industry.
Adsorption increased with increase in contact time, adsorbent dose and dye concentra tion. Conversely, the percentage dye adsorbed decreased with increase of solution pH
and size of MSH particles. Sorption increased with an increase in temperature signal ing an endothermic process. Batch adsorption data best fitted to Freundlich adsorption
isotherm model with Kf value of 4.20679 and n = 2.3375. The adsorption kinetics followed
a pseudo-second-order kinetic model with high correlation coefficients (R2 > 0.98). These
results demonstrated that MSH is an environmentally friendly, locally available, effective
and economical adsorbent for the removal of RB5 dye from industrial wastewaters.
