162 Int J Petrochem Res. ISSN: 2638-1974 Volume 2 • Issue 2 • 1000128 International Journal of Petrochemistry and Research Research Article Open Access Microwave assisted rice husk based activated carbon for adsorption of methylene blue dye Mohd Azmier Ahmad 1,3 *, Nor Irwin Basir 1 and Nasehir Khan EM Yahaya 2 1 School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, UniversitiSainsMalaysia, 14300 NibongTebal, Penang, Malaysia 2 National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia, Lot 5733 Jalan Putra Permai, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Solid Waste Management Cluster, Science & Engineering Research Centre, Engineering Campus, UniversitiSains Malaysia, NibongTebal, Penang, Malaysia Article Info *Corresponding author: Mohd Azmier Ahmad School of Chemical Engineering Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia 14300 Nibong Tebal Penang, Malaysia Tel: +604 5996459 Fax: +604 5996908 E-mail: chazmier@usm.my Received: July 25, 2018 Accepted: July 31, 2018 Published: August 5, 2018 Citation: Ahmad MA, Basir NI, Yahaya NKEM. Microwave assisted rice husk based activated carbon for adsorption of methylene blue dye Int J Petrochem Res. 2018; 2(2): 162-164. doi: 10.18689/ijpr-1000128 Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Published by Madridge Publishers Abstract Rice husk based activated carbon (RHAC) was prepared for the methylene blue (MB) dye adsorption through physical activation process which involved microwave irradiation and carbon dioxide gasification. The effect of initial dye concentration and contact time were evaluated in a batch process. The MB adsorption onto RHAC was found to increase from 16.18 to 137.15 mg/g as the MB concentrations increase from 25 to 300 mg/L. The adsorption equilibrium data was best fitted into Freundlich isotherm model. Keywords: Activated carbon, Adsorption, Methylene blue, Microwave heating, Rice husk Introduction The textile is one of the largest water consuming industries and releases large amount of effluent. The textile effluent contains carcinogenic dye, toxic heavy metals, phenolic compounds, softeners and other chemicals used in the dyeing process [1]. The presences of even very low concentration of dye in the effluent are highly visible and undesirable. Dye is very much associated with carcinogenic, mutagenic, allergenic and toxic properties [2]. Dye is difficult to be decolorized and decomposed biologically. Therefore, the dye wastewater needs to be properly treated before its release into the environment [3]. Activated carbon (AC) adsorption is considered as one of the most effective method for dye wastewater treatment [4]. In this study, rice husk was used to produce AC using microwave heating and CO 2 gasification for MB dye removal from aqueous solution. Methodology The rice husk was placed in tubular reactor and carbonized using vertical furnace at temperature of 350°C for 30 minutes under the nitrogen flow of 150 ml/min. Then the char produced was placed in a Pyrex glass reactor in the chamber of the microwave oven. The microwave irradiation was carried at radiation time and radiation power of 4.28 minutes and microwave power of 440 watt under CO 2 flow of 150 ml/min. For adsorption study, the 1 g/L of MB stock solution was prepared by dissolving 1 g of MB dye powder (Sigma-Aldrich (M) Ltd) with 1 litre of deionized water. 0.2 g of the RHAC was added to a series of Erlenmeyer flask filled with 0.2 L of MB dye solution with different initial concentrations ranging from 25-300 mg/L. The solutions were kept in an isothermal water bath shaker at temperature 30 o C and shaker speed of 60 rpm. The aqueous samples were then withdrawn at the equilibrium state of 24 hours. The MB concentration was measured at 664nm by using UV-Vis spectrometer (Model Shimadzu ISSN: 2638-1974