Removal of crystal violet dye using sugarcane fiber

The occurrence of dye in water is a visual nuisance and greatly affects the appearance of water. Use of natural based sorbent, such as sugarcane, can reduce the amount of dye in water without changing it into more toxic substance. In this paper, the effect of sorbent dose, pH and initial concentration was studied towards the percent removal of crystal violet dye in water. A high sorbent dose, up to 50 mg/mL can remove about 95% of this dye in water. Further increase in sorbent dose will only increase the removal slightly, moreover it will also increase the cost of the sorbent. The dye can be removed efficiently even at concentration as low as 200 ppm, where the removal was about 75%. At higher initial concentration, the percent removal increased accordingly. However, the pH did not greatly affect the percent removal. Varying the pH from 3 to 11, the percent removal was changed from about 90% to 95% only