Use of genetic algorithm optimization technique in the adsorption of phenol on banana and grapefruit peels

Adsorption studies for phenol removal from aqueous solutions on banana and grapefruit peels were carried out under varying experimental conditions of contact time,phenol concentration and ph. the maximum adsorption capacities for 100 ppm initial phenol concentration were determined as 33.66 mg.g-1 and 23.50 mg.g-1 for banana and grapefruit peel at the ph values of 7,respectively. two-three and four parameter isotherm equations were used to determine the equilibrium adsorption capacities of banana and grapefruit peel for phenol removal. among the two and three parameter equation,redlich-peterson equation gives the satisfactory fit over all ranges of concentration whereas,langmuir and freundlich did not give adequate result,with respect to standard deviation. the parameters of jeager-erdoes contained four unknown constants (a,b,k and d) were solved by genetic algorithm (ga) method under no assumption. among the equations considered,the four parameter equation of jeager-erdoes represents the best approximation with experimental data. © 2016,chemical society of pakistan. all rights reserved.