RESUMO
Wastewater containing pigments and/or dyes can cause serious water pollution problems in the form of reduced light penetration and photosynthesis, and the toxicity from heavy metals associated with pigments and/or dyes. Laboratory investigations, of the potential use of dried Spirodela polyrrhiza biomass as an adsorbent for the removal of the basic dye methylene blue from aqueous solution were conducted. A series of experiments were undertaken in an agitated batch adsorber to assess the effect of the system variables, i.e. sorbent dosage, pH, and contact time. The results showed that as the amount of the dried S. polyrrhiza increased, the percentage of dye sorption increased accordingly. At pH 2.0 the sorption of dye was not favorable, while the sorption at other pHs (3.0-11.0) was remarkable. There was no significant difference in the dye concentration remaining when the pH was increased from 3.0 to 11.0. The dye removal time was influenced by the initial dye concentration, and the process followed the first-order rate kinetics. The rate constants for intraparticle diffusion were 1.00 and 3.27 mg/g/min1/2 for 300 and 500 mg/l of dye, respectively.