Adsorption of Neutral Red from Aqueous Solution by Wheat Husk in a Fixed-bed Column

In this study, the ability of wheat straw to adsorb neutral red (NR) from aqueous solution was investigated in a fixed-bed column. The effects of the flow rate, the influent concentration of NR and bed depth on breakthrough curves, were studied. The adsorption quantity was 26.4 mg/g at initial NR concentration of 50 mg/L, flow rate of 10.0 mL/min and bed depth of 8.0 cm. The Thomas model was applied to fit the experimental data and the results showed that it was available to predict the breakthrough curves and to determine the characteristic parameters of the column useful for process design using nonlinear regression.