Modelling single and binary adsorptive behaviour of aniline and nitrobenzene onto granular activated carbon

Abstract

Present study deals with the binary batch adsorption of aniline (AN) and nitrobenzene (NB) onto granular-activated carbon (GAC). For single component, the adsorptive uptake of AN and NB increased and percent removal decreased with an increase in initial adsorbate concentration. The AN loading capacity of GAC was enhanced from 1.41 to 17 mg/g for the changes in initial AN concentration (C0,AN) from 23 to 540 mg/L. Similarly, the NB loading capacity was increased from 2.05 to 37.4 mg/g for the changes in C0,NB from 21 to 392 mg/L. The single component equilibrium adsorption uptake of AN and NB was best-fitted by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) isotherm model. The single-component BET constant, qm, for NB and AN are found to be about 50.01 and 15.57 mg/g, respectively. The equilibrium adsorption capacity data is well represented by extended Langmuir model. Maximum adsorption uptake of the binary system is found to be 81.25 mg/g.