Screening Of Process Parameters Influencing The Biosorption Of Textile Effluents Using Plackett-Burman Design

Biosorption of textile dye effluents using marine red macroalgae Gracilaria corticata as a low-cost adsorbent and its potential was evaluated. The process parameters responsible for adsorption of dye from the aqueous solution, such as pH (4-8), temperature (30-40°C), initial dye concentration (10-20%), biomass concentrations (1-10 g/L), agitation/static and time (120-180 min) were optimized using the statistical approach. Plackett-Burman design of factorial design method was used to identify the most significant parameters affecting the rate of biosorption. The resultant decolourization of the effluent before and after biosorption were compared using UV spectrophotometer. The predicted values and the experimental values were found to be in good agreement (R²=0.9794 and Adj-R²=0.9547). Four out of six operational parameters, namely biomass concentration, pH, dye concentration and static-agitation (P<0.05) showed a very good sign in the decolourization process.