Chemistry of Pyrolysis and Kinetic Studies of Shea Nut (Vitellaria paradoxa) Shells Activated Carbon for Textile Wastewater Treatment

Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and Zinc chloride (ZnCl2) catalyzed shea nut shells, subjected to a one way activation scheme was employed to study the adsorption kinetics and mode of diffusion of industrial dye uptake. Thermodynamics data obtained in this study indicate that the sorption of dye spontaneously increases with time and decreases after equilibration was reached. The adsorption follows the pseudo second order kinetic model which gave the least % SSE (0.449-1.348), best linearity (R2=0.998-0.999) and closer agreement between the experimental and calculated qe values (qe exp., 96.985/qe cal., 100.00).Mode of transport deviate from the intraparticle diffusion model. According to this study, percent dye removal coupled with the close proximity of generated data to those reviewed in literatures, is an indication that shea nut shells could compare, to a good extent with commercial activated carbon for organic dye removal from dyestuff wastewater.