Blended tropical pineapple peel and crown fruit wastes as precursor for activated carbon by microwave-assisted H3PO4 activation: process optimization for methylene blue dye removal

• Published in: Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
• Main Author: Jawad A.H.; Radhuwan S.N.N.M.; Musa S.A.; ALOthman Z.A.; Wilson L.D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85197561433&doi=10.1007%2fs13399-024-05880-z&partnerID=40&md5=6b75015ec3690c83e7422c0391cc1fbf

A blended tropical pineapple (Ananas comosus) peel and crown (PPC) fruit wastes were utilized as an alternate source material for producing mesoporous-activated carbon through H3PO4 activation employing microwave pyrolysis. Diverse techniques including BET, XRD, FTIR, and SEM–EDX were employed to characterize the PPC-AC. The efficacy of PPC-AC as an adsorbent was assessed for removing (MB) cationic dye from an aqueous medium. Optimization of adsorption process parameters—adsorbent dose (A: 0.02–0.1 g/100 mL), solution pH (B: 4–10), and contact time (C: 40–360 min)—was conducted using RSM-BBD. The adsorption process adhered to pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetics and Freundlich isotherm models. PPC-AC demonstrated a peak adsorption capacity of 39.5 mg/g for MB dye. The adsorption mechanism of MB dye was attributed to various interactions including electrostatic, H-bonding, and π–π interaction. This investigation showcases the efficacy of a renewable biomass resource for generating activated carbon with advantageous adsorption properties for cationic dyes. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024.