Utilization of fly ash composite from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) as an adsorbent to remove methylene blue from wastewater

Abstract Utilization of MSWI fly ash and corncob by combining fly ash and corncobs with a 1:10 ratio, activated with 75% KOH as an adsorbent to reduce methylene blue dye in textile wastewater. For the characterization testing of FACC, SEM-EDS, and pH pzc were used to determine the morphological conditions and pH value when FACC is in zero charged condition. Characterization results show that FACC has a rough surface and many pores with O, C, and K as dominant elements. pH pzc test shows that FACC will have a zero charge at pH 13.18. Experiments were conducted with batch method on the effect of adsorption operational parameters at contact time (0-120 min), FACC dosage (0.05-0.5 g/L), pollutant concentration (50-250 mg/L), and initial pH (2-10). Maximum removal efficiency was obtained at a contact time of 60 minutes, with a dosage of 0.5 g/L, pollutant concentration of 50 mg/L, and initial pH of 4 with a removal % of 98.37%. The Langmuir isotherm model described the adsorption mechanism with the maximum adsorption capacity reaching 344.828 mg/g. The adsorption rate used a pseudo-second-order kinetics model with a K 2 value of 13.9 × 10 −3 g/mg.min. FACC are good adsorbent alternatives for removing dyes in industrial wastewater.