Proceedings of the 5 th International Conference on Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development (ICCESD 2020), 7~9 February 2020, KUET, Khulna, Bangladesh (ISBN-978-984-34-8764-3) ICCESD-2020-5217-1 THE SEED OF BURMESE GRAPE (BACCAUREA RAMIFLORA) AS LOW- COST BIO-ADSORBENT FOR REMOVAL OF METHELYNE BLUE FROM WASTEWATER Ehsanur Rahman 1 , Hridoy Roy 2 , Shoeb Ahmed* 3 and Shakhawat H. Firoz* 4 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh, e- mail: ehsanur1205@gmail.com 2 Student, Department of Chemical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh, e-mail: hridoyroyprottoy875@gmail.com 3 Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh, e-mail: shoebahmed@che.buet.ac.bd 4 Head and Professor, Department of Chemistry, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh, e-mail: shfiroz@chem.buet.ac.bd *Corresponding Author ABSTRACT Treatment of the industrial wastewater containing dyes is becoming the concern of many conservationists. As dye containing effluent from industries has biological and environmental hazards, techniques for the removal of dyes from waste has been growing rapidly. Bio-adsorbent from divergent sources has been used as promising agent for removing the contaminants in wastewater due its availability, low-cost, biodegradability and nontoxicity. In this study the capacity of Burmese grape seeds as a low-cost bio-adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue from aqueous solution was explored. Batch adsorption experiments were performed with varying process parameters (pH, contact time and initial dye concentration) at ambient temperature. UV-vis spectrum analysis was performed to determine the change in concentrations of dye. Changes in adsorption capacity with varying pH was noticed and maximum sorption of methylene blue was found to be at pH 8. The adsorption rate was rapid for first 10 minutes of contact time and at 40 minutes the equilibrium condition was achieved and no further change was observed in concentrations with contact time. Kinetic studies showed good correlation coefficient (R 2 =0.999) for a pseudo-second order kinetic model over the selected range of contact time (10-40 minutes). The removal mechanism was described by Langmuir isotherm model with a good fit (R 2 =0.983). Maximum sorption capacity was calculated by Langmuir isotherm model and found to be163.93 mg/g. So, the results showed that if the process variable can be optimized, Burmese grape seeds can be a very effective adsorbent and have the potential to remove a significant amount of dye from industrial wastewater. Keywords: Dye, Burmese grape, Bio-adsorbent.