Artificial neural network (ANN) modeling of adsorption of methylene blue by NaOH-modified rice husk in a fixed-bed column system

In this study, rice husk was modified with NaOH and used as adsorbent for dynamic adsorption of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions. Continuous removal of MB from aqueous solutions was studied in a laboratory scale fixed-bed column packed with NaOH-modified rice husk (NMRH). Effect of different flow rates and bed heights on the column breakthrough performance was investigated. In order to determine the most suitable model for describing the adsorption kinetics of MB in the fixed-bed column system, the bed depth service time (BDST) model as well as the Thomas model was fitted to the experimental data. An artificial neural network (ANN)-based model was also developed for describing the dynamic dye adsorption process. An extensive error analysis was carried out between experimental data and data predicted by the models by using the following error functions: correlation coefficient (R ²), average relative error, sum of the absolute error and Chi-square statistic test (χ ²). Results show that with increasing bed height and decreasing flow rate, the breakthrough time was delayed. All the error functions yielded minimum values for the ANN model than the traditional models (BDST and Thomas), suggesting that the ANN model is the most suitable model to describe the fixed-bed adsorption of MB by NMRH. It is also more rational and reliable to interpret dynamic dye adsorption data through a process of ANN architecture.