International Journal of Chemistry and Material Science Vol. 2(3), pp. 054-058, September, 2014 ISSN 2327-5553 ©2014 Academe Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Reuse of waste in sugar plants

Sachin Madhavrao Kanawade

Pravara Rural Education Society’s Sir Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, A/P Chincholi, Chemical Engineering Department, Tal-Sinnar, Dist-Nashik, M.S., India Pin-422101. E-mail: sachinkanawade2012@rediffmail.com.

Accepted 24 September, 2014

Abstract

Removal of melanoidins pigments from molasses spent wash was investigated using a new adsorbent. Solid adsorbents were fabricated from charcoal fly ash and clay with the proportion of 60 and 40 weight percent. The fabricated adsorbents were packed in a column and the molasses solution was pumped through the column. The impact of various contact times of the pigments and the adsorbents in the column on color removal efficiency was investigated. The experiments were conducted with various contact times of 30, 60, 90 and 240 min. Also, the effect of influent molasses concentration on the performance of the adsorbents was evaluated. The effluent samples were taken from the column at a time interval of 30 min. The obtained results revealed that maximum color removal efficiency of 72% was achieved with molasses concentration of 6 g/l and contact time of 240 min. The obtained results from the fresh and regenerated adsorbents were compared. The achieved data showed that 90% of the capacity of the fresh adsorbent was recovered after the regeneration process. It was also concluded that the regenerated adsorbents were able to remove 65% of the color from the molasses solution. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm adsorption models were investigated to interpret the experimental data. The obtained data were well represented by Langmuir adsorption model. The constants of the isotherms and the maximum adsorption capacity of the adsorbents were calculated.

Key words: Molasses, adsorption, clay, fly ash, semi batch system.