Mixture of soya bean and cotton seed residuals for production of activated carbon species as efficient adsorbent in the process of wastewater decontamination via dye disposal

The application of agriculture waste–derived activated carbon for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater is an interesting approach for the environmental security. In this research study, soya bean residuals and cotton seeds were utilized for the preparation of an activated carbon material as a valuable adsorbent for the elimination of dye molecules during wastewater treatment. The novelty of this study is based on the utilization of such agro-mixture, as first time, for the production of activated carbon species. The characteristics of the produced activated carbon were determined using XRD, SEM, FTIR, BET surface area, and Raman spectroscopy analyses. The resulting carbonaceous material was used as an adsorbent material for the removal of anionic and cationic dyes in aqueous solutions. Kinetic investigation could reveal that the elimination process of methyl orange (MO) and crystal violet (CV) reached equilibrium at 120 min and the uptake reaction obeyed to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The analysis of the sorption results using several isotherm models shows that the Langmuir isotherm model is best fitting for MO and CV sorption process. The maximum sorption capacity for both dyes was found to be 131.5 and 57.1 mg g −1 for MO and CV respectively. These findings could reflect the high affinity of the prepared activated carbon toward the anionic dye over the cationic one. The thermodynamic parameters exhibit that the uptake of anionic as well as cationic dyes is an endothermic, feasible, and spontaneous process. Obtained results through this research work are revealing great significance for environmental implications based on usage of solid waste residuals for obtaining efficient carbon material as a promising adsorbent for organic pollutants from waste aqueous solutions.