Residue Char Derived from Microwave-Assisted Pyrolysis of Sludge as Adsorbent for the Removal of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

Residue char is the main by-product of the microwave-assisted pyrolysis of activated sludge and it has a high content of fixed carbon and porous structure, but little is known about its character as an absorbent. In this study, residue char of activated sludge with microwave-assisted pyrolysis was used as an adsorbent to absorb methylene blue. The effects of pyrolysis temperature, pyrolysis holding time, contact time, and adsorption temperature on the adsorption ability of residue char were investigated. Kinetics, isotherm, and thermodynamic models were also included to study the adsorption behavior. The results showed that the optimal pyrolysis condition was 15 min and 603 °C, and the adsorption capacity reached up to 80.01 mg/g. The kinetics analyses indicated the adsorption behavior followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the adsorption process was mainly due to chemical interaction. The adsorption isotherm was described by Freundlich model and thus, its process was multimolecular layer adsorption. Furthermore, the thermodynamics parameters (ΔG0, ΔH0, and ΔS0) at different temperatures indicated that the nature of the adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous.