Activated carbonfromorange(Citrus sinensis) peelwasdevelopedthroughH3PO4 acid activation.Its
ability asanadsorbentfortheremovaloftworepresentativebasicdyes(methyleneblueandrhodamine
B) fromsingleandbinarydyessolutionsinbatchandcontinuousmodeswasexamined.Theorangepeel-
based activatedcarbonpresentedahighspecificsurfacearea(1090m2/g), predominanceofmesopores
and acidiccharacter.Italsoshowedahighadsorptioncapacityforbothdyesinbatchanddynamicmodes.
Experimental equilibriumisothermsobtainedfromsingle-dyesolutionsfittedtheLangmuir–Freundlich
model, andthoseobtainedfrombinarysolutionswereproperlydescribedbysingleandmulti-component
models. Breakthroughcurvesobtainedfromsingle-dyesolutionsexhibitedabetterremovalperformance
for rhodamineB.Adsorptioncapacityatexhaustiontimeforthisdyewas11%higherthanformethy-
lene blue.Additionalexperimentsindynamicconditionswithabinarysolutionofbothdyespointedto
adsorption competitionfortheactivesitesofthedevelopedcarbon.Breakthroughcurveswereadequately
represented byamodifiedtwo-parametermodel.