Adsorption of methylene blue on bituminous schists from Tarfaya-Boujdour

A. Ayach, S. Fakhi, Z. Faiz, A. Bouih, O. Ait malek, A. Benkdad, M. Benmansour, A. Laissaoui, M. Adjour, Y. Elbatal, I. Vioque and G. Manjon

Abstract

In this work, the reactivity of the surface of bituminous schists has been studied using a cation adsorbent, so-called Methylene Blue (MB). This bituminous schist is a calcareous clay rock that contains some amounts of organic matter. The
samples were collected from an outcrop of Lamsied (Laâyoune), zone around Tarfaya-Boujdour. Once the granulometry of samples was well determined, the rocks were characterized by X-ray diffraction and they were analysed by X-ray
fluorescence. Some parameters were considered relevant on the adsorption of MB by surface rock and they have been studied. One of these parameters is the adsorbed molecules-adsorbent contact time. This is the contact between a
starting concentration of MB and a certain mass of gross rock. The analysis of results has shown that adsorption of MB can be well modelled by the Langmuir isotherm and also that a rapid kinetic (<100 min for L-type) can be fitted by a
second-order equation model. The gross rock takes 84 % of the amount of MB in aqueous phase at a time less than 1min, using a rock mass of 0.1 g.