N. Ahalya¹, M.N. Chandraprabha¹, R.D. Kanamadi², T.V. Ramachandra^3,*

¹Department of Biotechnology, M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology,Bangalore.
²Department of Zoology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka.
³ Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
^*Corresponding author: T.V. Ramachandra, cestvr@ces.iisc.ernet.in
Web: http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy

Introduction

food industries. Colour stuff discharged from these industries poses certain hazards and environmental problems. These coloured compounds are not only aesthetically displeasing but also inhibit sunlight penetration into the stream and affecting aquatic ecosystem. Dyes usually have complex aromatic molecular structures which make them more stable and difficult to biodegrade (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2005). Furthermore, many dyes are toxic to some microorganisms and may cause direct destruction or inhibition of their catalytic capabilities.
Textile industry use dyes and pigments to colour their product. There are more than 100,000 commercially available dyes with over 7×105 tonnes of dyestuff are produced annually. Many types of dye are used in textile industries such as direct, reactive, acid and basic dyes. There are various conventional methods of removing dyes including coagulation and flocculation, oxidation or ozonation and membrane separation (Aksu, 2005). These methods are not widely used due to their high cost and economic disadvantage. The main focus of this study was to evaluate the biosorption capacity of a novel, low cost, and renewable biomass, coffee husk for the removal of fast green. In a tropical country like India, coffee husk is found in plenty and is discarded as waste, as they have very less calorific valu

Objectives:

1. The objectives of the study are:
2. Evaluate the biosorption capacity of coffee husk for the removal of fast green
3. To study the effects of pH, contact time, initial dye concentration and biomass dosage on the biosorption capacity.
4. Use of equilibrium models to fit the experimental data.