Effects of acid-basic treatments of date stones on lead (II) adsorption

Efficient sequestration of lead from aqueous systems by peanut shells and compost: evidence from fixed bed column and batch scale studies

Lead (Pb) is a pervasive contaminant and poses a serious threat to living beings. The present study aims at batch and fixed bed column scale potential of commercial compost (CCB) and peanut shells biosorbents (PSB) for the sequestration of Pb from contaminated aqueous systems. The PSB and CCB were characterized with FTIR, SEM and Brunauer Emmett-Teller (BET) to get insight of the adsorption behavior of both materials. Fixed bed column scale experiments were performed at steady state flow (2.5 and 5.0 mL/min), initial Pb concentrations (25 and 50 mg/L) and dosage of each adsorbent (3.0 and 6.0 g/column). Columns packed (15.9 cm2) with PSB and CCB have revealed excellent adsorption of Pb with PSB as compared with CCB. The total volume of injected contaminated water was 1,500 mL and 3,000 mL at 2.5 and 5.0 mL/min, respectively while total bed volume number was 157. A series of batch experiments with CCB and PSB was conducted at adsorbent dosage (1.25–5.0 g/L), initial Pb level (25–100 mg/L), interaction time (0–180 min) and solution pH (4–10) at room temperature. Batch scale results revealed that PSB removed 92% Pb from water at 25 mg Pb/L concentration as compared with CCB (79%). The presence of competing ions in groundwater showed less Pb removal as compared with synthetic water. The experimental data were simulated with equilibrium isothermal models: Langmuir, Freundlich, and kinetic models: pseudo first order, pseudo second order and intra-particle diffusion. The Freundlich and pseudo second order models better described the equilibrium and kinetic experimental data, respectively with maximum sorption of 42.5 mg/g by PSB which is also evident from FTIR functional groups and SEM results. While equilibrium sorption of Pb onto CCB was equally explained by Freundlich and Langmuir models. These findings indicate that PSB could be an active and ecofriendly biosorbent for the sequestration of metals from contaminated aqueous systems.

Paracetamol degradation by photo-activated peroxydisulfate process (UV/PDS): kinetic study and optimization using central composite design

In this study, peroxydisulfate (PDS) was successfully activated by UV-irradiation for the degradation of paracetamol (PCT) frequently detected in the environment. Results showed that increasing the initial PDS concentration from 5 to 20 mM promote the removal of PCT from 49.3% to 97.5% after 240 min of reaction time. As the initial PCT concentration increased from 0.066 to 0.132 mM, the degradation efficiency of PCT decreased from 98% to 73% after 240 min of reaction time, while the optimal pH was found to be 6. It is apparent that the degradation rate of PCT was favored by the lamp power regardless of the initial PCT concentration, for 0.132 mM of PCT, the degradation efficiency increased from 73% to 95% when the lamp power increased from 9 to 30 W, respectively. The kinetic of degradation of the PCT was described by a pseudo-second order kinetic model. The model obtained by central composite design led to the following optimal conditions for PCT degradation: 0.132 mM initial PCT concentration, 20 mM PDS dose, pH solution 6 and lamp power 30 W led to the removal of 92% of PCT at 25 °C within 240 min of reaction time.

Adsorption of pharmaceutical residues on adsorbents prepared from olive stones using mixture design of experiments model

In this work, inexpensive and easily available olive stone (OS) waste was used as the source material to prepare activated carbons (ACs) by chemical activation with phosphoric acid and zinc chloride. The mixture design of experiments (MDOE) method was applied to study the effect of the composition of the mixture of unmodified olive stones (UOS) and ACs prepared from olive stones activated with ZnCl₂ (ACOS ZnCl₂) and H₃PO₄ (ACOS H₃PO₄) on the absorption of pharmaceutical residues. The adsorbed tetracycline (TC) amounts at equilibrium predicted from the model equation developed using Microsoft Excel were found to be in good agreement with the experimental values (R² = 0.999). Based on the results of the model, the amount of TC removed increased as the proportion of ACOS H₃PO₄ in the adsorbent mixture increased and the highest amount of TC adsorbed was obtained with an adsorbent made up entirely of ACOS H₃PO₄. Separate adsorption tests for sulfamethazine (SMT) and amoxicillin (AMX) on ACOS H₃PO₄ showed that SMT was adsorbed best (189.81 mg/g), followed by TC (183.11 mg/g) then AMX (155.69 mg/g). However, when these molecules were present together in the same solution, it was TC that adsorbed best, followed by SMT then AMX. In addition to this, the sorption process studied was best described by a pseudo-first-order model and it was the Langmuir model that satisfactorily described the equilibrium data.