Integrated economic and adsorption performance study of CMC/MMT nano-composite for cationic dye removal from industrial wastewater

Abstract

Abstract The present study uniquely integrates an economic analysis with the practical evaluation of cationic dye (methylene blue) adsorption using Carboxymethyl Chitosan-Montmorillonite (CMC/MMT) nanocomposites for industrial wastewater treatment. The most influential parameters affecting adsorption, namely temperature, initial dye concentration, contact time, and pH, were explored. The sorption mechanism of CMC/MMT was analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models and the adsorption kinetics were evaluated using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Moreover, a comparison between the prepared ion exchanger and commercial resin, namely Amberlite IR 120, was conducted. The effective values of pH and temperature were found to be 8.5 and 30 °C, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity was determined to be 435 mg/g compared to 290 mg/g for the commercial resin, indicating that the prepared nanocomposite has a greater capacity for cationic dye removal. The adsorption performance of CMC/MMT demonstrated that the adsorption kinetics and isotherms were compatible with a pseudo-second-order model and the Langmuir isotherm respectively. Furthermore, the results of the techno-economic study for the nanocomposite production revealed that the synthesized resin under investigation exhibits a lower cost per kilogram of dye removed compared with the commercial resin.