International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol:12 No:04 51 1212804-7676-IJCEE-IJENS © August 2012 IJENS I J E N S Durian Rind as A Low Cost Adsorbent Syakirah Afiza Mohammed, Nor Wahidatul Azura Zainon Najib and Vishnuvarthan Muniandi Abstract-- Dyes are major contaminants from industrial wastewater which causes extensive damage to the environment. The potential of durian rind powder which is an agricultural waste to be used as a biosorbent to replace the use of activated carbon in the industry was investigated. Several factors such as pH, contact time and initial adsorbate concentration were studied to develop an adsorption equilibrium study to determine the adsorption capacity and analyze the suitability of the adsorption process. From the research study, higher pH conditions was determined to be the optimum condition for the adsorption process for Methylene Blue And Brilliant Green which were studied. The contact time study revealed that the adsorption process occurs swiftly where the adsorption reaches saturation at 30 minutes. From the factors studied in this research study, the highest removal and lowest removal for Methylene Blue is 95.91%and 87.46% respectively. Meanwhile higher adsorption was obtained with the adsorption of Brilliant Green where has the highest adsorption of 97.81% and lowest adsorption percentage of 87.79%. The adsorption equilibrium study analysis portrayed that the adsorption data were better represented by Langmuir model than Freundlich model. It also showed that the adsorption process was suitable and adsorption capacity reduced in the order of Brilliant Green and Methylene Blue at 95.23 mg/g and 84.75 mg/g respectively. Index Term-- Biosorption, Durian, Methylene Blue, Brilliant Green I. INTRODUCTION As Malaysia develops to be an industrialized nation, various pollutants have been released to the environment without care, destroying the flora and fauna which has been the natural occupants of this now heavily polluted planet. Among the most toxic and dangerous pollutants are heavy metals, dye, green house gasses, and volatile organic compound among many which are constantly being released to the environment through uncontrolled and unsupervised anthropogenic activities. Adsorption is one of the effective method in controlling the pollutants. The term adsorption according to [1] refers to the accumulation of a substance called the adsorbate which is the pollutants at the interface between two phases such as solid and liquid or solid and gas. The solid on which adsorption occurs is known as adsorbent. Meanwhile, biosorption is a property of certain types of inactive, non-living microbial biomass to bind and concentrate heavy metals from even very dilute aqueous solution. Biosorption was developed to remove pollutants from aqueous solutions to replace conventional methods such as reduction or oxidation, ion exchange, filtration, electrochemical treatment, membrane technology, evaporation recovery, chemical precipitation, chemical lime coagulation and solvent extraction [2]. Biosorbents are dead and metabolically inactive cells which can serve as a basis for the progress to treat and remove heavy metals, nuclear fuel and radioactive elements. Biosorbents can be highly selective, cheap and efficient compare to activated carbon that used in conventional method [2]. Dyes are one of the important classes of the pollutants and are difficult to treat in aqueous form as they are synthetic and develop a complex molecular structure which makes them more stable and difficult to be biodegraded [3]. Dyes are used in many industries such as food, paper, carpets, rubbers, plastics, cosmetics, and textiles in order to color their products. These industries consume large quantities of water and produces large volumes of wastewater from different steps in the dyeing and finishing processes [4]. The discharge of coloured wastewater reduces light penetration, which has a derogatory effect on photosynthetic phenomena causing disturbance to the biological cycle in the stream or water bodies. Methylene Blue (MB) is selected as the dye studied in order to evaluate the capacity of the durian rind powder for the removal of MB from its aqueous solution. Besides its significant usage in the manufacturing industry, MB has a significant function in the medical field and is used in large amounts. Though MB is not extremely hazardous, it can cause some harmful effects where acute exposure to MB will cause increased heart rate, vomiting, shock, Heinz body formation, cyanosis, jaundice and quadriplegia and tissue necrosis in humans [5]. Brilliant Green (BG) dye is odorless yellow-green to green powdered dye used for various purposes. Among BG’s major usages are as biological stain, dermatological agent, veterinary medicine, and an additive to poultry feed to inhibit propagation of mold, intestinal parasites and fungus [6] Brilliant Green (BG) dye is also extensively used in textile industry and for the production of cover paper in the paper industry. About 0.8–1.0 kg of BG is consumed per tonne of paper produced [7]. BG causes numerous health problems when it comes in contact with humans. Among the complications caused by BG is eye burn, which may be responsible for permanent injury to the eyes of humans and animals. It may also be harmful if inhaled as it can cause irritation to the skin and the respiratory tract. Symptoms may include coughing and shortness of breath. If swallowed, the dye causes irritation to the gastrointestinal tract with symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. On decomposition, it may form harmful carbon oxides, nitrogen