Insight into the optimization of mass and contact time in two-stage adsorber design for malachite green removal by coconut shell activated carbon

Abstract

The present work was aimed at evaluating the traits of a two-stage adsorber in optimizing the mass and contact time to achieve the desired removal performance. Data from literature for malachite green removal by coconut shell activated carbon in one-stage batch adsorber were taken as the basis for the simulation. Results show that the activated carbon mass was reduced by 22.4%, i.e., from 0.1 g to 0.078 g for 100 mL effluent, while the contact time was minimized from 30 min to 1.43 min for the removal of 50 mg/L dye in the two-stage adsorber. In the performance evaluation, the activated carbon mass in stage-1 is higher than that in stage-2 to lessen the load in accomplishing the removal at minimum dosage. The findings suggest that the two-stage adsorber design is economically viable for removing the dye in wastewater treatment.