Removal of pollutants from water using untreated and treated sawdust and water hyacinth

Sawdust and water hyacinth are waste products which have no economical appl ication in Egypt. They even constitute a solid waste as far as the environm ent is concerned. As-received sawdust and water hyacinth were treated with phosphoric acid, phosphoric acid + urea or phosphoric acid + urea + dimethy lformamide. The as-received and treated samples were used for the removal o f Methylene Blue, iodine, phenol and ammonia from their aqueous solutions. The optimum conditions for the maximum adsorption of each pollutant were de termined. The isotherms obtained obeyed the Freundlich and Langmuir equatio ns in a satisfactory manner. The initial stages of adsorption follow first- order kinetics as predicted from the Lagergren equation. Sawdust and water hyacinth show promising potentialities for the removal of pollutants from w ater and can, at least, be used as precursors for the preparation of effici ent adsorbents for the removal of pollutants from water.