Textile Dyes removal from industrial waste water by mytilus edulis shells

Effluent from the textile industry is loaded of non-biodegradable dyes which make them difficult to apply biological treatments. Several techniques have been employed to remove dyes from wastewater; biosorption is being the most used actually. The marine biomaterial Mytilus Edulis shells were used as a new low-cost biological sorbent for the removal of textile dyes (Indigo Carmine and Methylene Blue) from aqueous solutions. The Mytilus Edulis shells were characterized by several techniques XRD, XRF, FTIR and SEM. A sample of Mytilus Edulis shells has been utilized as a sorbent for uptake Indigo Carmine and Methylene Blue. Experiments were conducted to investigate the biosorption characteristics of dyes by Mytilus Edulis shells. Operating variables studied were contact time, sells quantity, granulometry, initial dye concentration, temperature and pH. Biosorption capacity seems to be enhanced by increasing the biosorbent mass. Rising the temperature has also a positive effect on dye removal rate. Initial pH played the most important effect on the adsorbed amount of dyes. Pre-treating shells increased considerably the biosorption capacity. The constants in the Freundlich, Langmuir isotherms, the pseudo-first and pseudo-second orders kinetics models were calculated. Besides, the sorption study has showed that the Mytilus Edulis sorption was good and favourable. The shells biosorption capacity was compared to biosorption capacity of wood sawdust, marine algae and activated carbon. Mytilus Edulis shell is an effective sorbent to treat dye wastewater.