Preparation, Characterization, and Utilization of Banana Pseudo Stem as a Sustainable Adsorbent

Water pollution has been a thoughtful issue in recent decades, negatively affecting human health and ecology. The rapid development of industries, such as textile and leather, has contributed to water pollution due to an unprecedented amount of toxic industrial wastewater without a feasible wastewater treatment. Due to huge water consumption in all textile processes along with high concentration of lost dye as a result of low levels of dye-fiber fixation, dye removals from textile wastewater are an environmental concern. An attempt was taken to use the banana pseudo stem (BPS) to use as a sustainable adsorbent in removing dyes from aqueous solution. This experiment was carried out on a laboratory scale. The surface of banana pseudo stem (BPS) was modified by HCl and NaOH to observe the change in adsorption capacity. The acid modified BPS shows higher adsorption capacity than base modified BPS and unmodified BPS respectively. The FTIR spectrum was recorded to determine the main functional groups present on the surface of the banana pseudo stem. The effect of different physico-chemical parameters such as adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial concentration of dye, pH, and temperature on the removal of dyes from the aqueous solution has been studied. The maximum removal of a textile dye Congo red (CR) was found with a BPS mass of 1g/100 mL, at 30oC, at a concentration of 1×10-5 M, at pH 2.70 and 60 minutes of contact time. From the results, it is possible to conclude that banana pseudo stem could be a good alternative to the available adsorbent for the removal of reactive dyes from wastewater.