The adsorption characteristics of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on neutral alumina were studied in detail. Alumina was found to be an
efficientadsorbentforSDSandcouldbeusedfortheremovalofanionicsurfactant(AS)fromwastewaterwhenitispresentinhighconcentration
(several thousand ppm). In the present work the actual laundry wastewater was treated by both batch and continuous mode. The initial AS
concentration in wastewater was 8068ppm. The optimum adsorbent dose and equilibrium time found were 120g/l and 1h, respectively.
Under optimised conditions the removal efficiency was found to be 94%. The removal of SDS by alumina follows the pseudo-second order
reaction kinetics. In column study the flow rate was maintained at 1.63m 3 /m 2 /h. The breakthrough and exhaust time were found to be 48
and 86min, respectively, using 10cm column depth. Height of adsorption zone was found to be 5.5cm and the rate at which the adsorption
zone was moving through the bed was 9.42cm/h. The percentage of the total column saturated at breakthrough was found 75.5%. The value
of adsorption rate coefficient (K) and adsorption capacity coefficient (N) were obtained as 0.000824l/(mgh) and 143460mg/l, respectively.
After exhaustion, aqueous NaOH could efficiently regenerate alumina.