Biosorption of reactive dye using acid-treated rice husk: factorial design analysis.

A factorial experimental design technique was used to investigate the biosorption of reactive red RGB (lambda(max)=521 nm) from water solution on rice husk treated with nitric acid. Biosorption is favored because of abundance of biomass, low cost, reduced sludge compared to conventional treatment techniques and better decontamination efficiency from highly diluted solutions. Factorial design of experiments is employed to study the effect of four factors pH (2 and 7), temperature (20 and 40), adsorbent dosage (5 and 50mg/L) and initial concentration of the dye (50 and 250 mg/L) at two levels low and high.