Introduction
Dyes are widely used in various industries such as silk, cotton,
fabrics, paper and manufacturing of inks. Since most dyes in used
today are of synthetic origin, it poses a problem to the environment
if not removed properly. Amongst the problems associated with
dye contamination includes visible pollution, limiting the penetration
of light into the water body (Kumar et al., 2011; Ong et al.,
2011) as well as the potential mutagenic and carcinogenic effects
(Ratna and Padhi, 2012) where certain dyes were determined to
have a direct effect on the newly formed micronuclei, chromosomal
breakage and aneuploidy in human cells. Conventional techniques
available for dye removal such as Fenton-oxidation, irradiation,limited studies reported on the use of solid pineapple biomass as
precursor for the production of activated, hence adding to the
novelty feature of this study. Methylene blue was chosen as model
dye for easier comparison with the existing precursors of activated
carbon.