Decolorization of molasses using fly ash as adsorbent

Decolorization of molasses was investigated using various adsorbents. Fine sand, clay and fly ash were applied to remove color from molasses. Solid adsorbents were fabricated from charcoal fly ash, clay and fine sand with the proportion of 50, 25 and 25 percent, respectively. Batch experiments were conducted with defined amounts of the calcined adsorbents to remove pigments from molasses. The adsorbents were induced in 10 g/L solutions of molasses. Equilibrium concentration of absorbate was achieved within 300 min. Samples were taken from the solution at a time interval of 30 min. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models of adsorption were investigated to interpret the experimental data. The obtained data were well represented by Freundlich adsorption model.Adsorption model represented by Langmuir isotherm also depicts similar results. The fabricated adsorbent successfully removed more than 53% of color after 300 min. The obtained results revealed that the fabricated granule was a potential adsorbent which was able to remove all the pigments from molasses with sufficient contact time.

کلیدواژه ها:

Molasses ، Decolorization ، Adsorption Isotherm ، Clay ، Fly Ash