Statistical comparison of various agricultural and non-agricultural waste biomass-derived biochar for methylene blue dye sorption.

The present investigation deals with production of biochar using various agricultural and non-agricultural waste biomass followed by sorption of methylene blue (MB) dye. The optimization of pyrolysis temperature, dye solution pH, incubation temperature, and time was performed using response surface methodologies (RSM). Analytical tools like Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and total organic carbon (TOC) were employed to analyze changes in the material after pyrolysis. The water hyacinth biochar showed 100% predicted and 98% actual sorption capability for MB dye (3000 mg/L) after statistically optimized conditions like pyrolysis temperature (1000 °C), pH (8), incubation temperature (60 °C), and incubation time (1 h). The cytotoxicity, phytotoxicity, and hemolysis studies indicated that the toxicity of the MB dye was significantly decreased after treating MB dye solution with water hyacinth biochar. Therefore, the present results reveal an easy and economical dye removal strategy using various waste biomass-derived biochars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]