Treatment of malachite green-containing wastewater using poultry feathers as adsorbent

The feasibility of using feathers, a waste from poultry as an absorbent for malachite green in dye wastewater was studied. The batch adsorption tests were shown to be influenced by the concentration of the dye, reaction temperature, solution pH, and pre-treatment with ethanol. In order to establish the equilibrium state of the process, a kinetic study was conducted for an optimal practice of adsorption treatment process. The adsorption reached equilibrium within 120 min in the range of dye concentration studied. It was found that the adsorption rate increases especially at low concentrations of dye and the adsorption data fitted well to the first-order reaction kinetics over all dye concentration range. Absolute amount of adsorbed malachite green at equilibrium condition decreased as concentration decreases. Adsorption of malachite green on poultry feathers fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm model. As temperature increases, the adsorbed amount of malachite green at equilibrium also increased, indicating an endothermic adsorption reaction. In addition, the color removal of malachite green rapidly increased with increase in dye's water pH. The pre-treatment of adsorbent with ethanol produced initial slow rate of malachite green removal but after about 100 min of reaction time, same removal rate was observed compare with the untreated feathers.