<i>Acacia etbaica</i> as a Potential Low-Cost Adsorbent for Removal of Organochlorine Pesticides from Water

Abstract

The presence of pesticides in the environment is of great concern due to their persistent nature and chronic adverse effect on human health and the environment. Water bodies are subject to pollution by organochlorine pesticides, especially in developing countries, where water pollution is a key sustainability challenge. Hence, activated carbon is considered a universal adsorbent for the removal of organochlorine pollutants from water. Activated carbon from Acatia etbaica was prepared using traditional kilns with low investment costs. Pesticides such as aldrin, dieldrin and DDT were selected for adsorption because of their common usage in agricultural and malaria control activities and may occur in high concentrations in surface waters that are used as drinking water sources. The effect of the adsorbent dose and initial concentration were investigated. To describe the equilibrium isotherms the experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Freundlich model gave the best correlation with the experimental data. Activated carbon prepared from Acacia etbaica was found to be an effective and low-cost alternative for the removal of organochlorine pesticides from aqueous solutions. The preparation method allows the use of this material by local communities for effective remediation of pollution * Corresponding author. A. Gebrekidan et al. 279by pesticides.

Effects of biochar on the growth of <i>Olea europaea</i> subsp. <i>cuspidata</i> and <i>Dodonaea angustifolia</i> planted in Tigray, northern Ethiopia

“…We prepared 50 two-year-old seedlings of Olea and 50 five-month-old seedlings of Dodonaea at the Mekelle University nursery. The biochar was obtained from a market in Mekelle City and was produced from Acacia etbaica Schweinf., which is a typical material for biochar production in this region 8) . The biochar was crushed into particle sizes under 1 cm in diameter.…”

Effect of Chemical Activating Agents on Surface Area and Methylene Blue Uptake Capacity of Activated Carbons

“…Precursor materials utilized in the past. Literature shows that researchers utilized variety of materials including Moringa oleifera seeds (Warhurst et al, 1997), apricot (Erdoðan et al, 2005, corn cobs (Cao et al, 2006), date stones (Haimour and Emeish, 2006), cherry stones (Olivares-Marín et al, 2006), waste tea (Amarasinghe and Williams, 2007), cotton stalk (El-Hendawy et al, 2008), olive stoves (Kula et al, 2008), olive cake (Baccar et al, 2009), bamboo (Liu et al, 2010), almond shells (Plaza et al, 2010), giant seeds (Yue et al, 2010), coconut shell (Cazetta et al, 2011), Acacia mangium (Danish et al, 2013), date palm fronds (Ahmad et al, 2015), Acacia etbaica (Gebrekidan et al, 2015), olive stones (Yakout and El Deen, 2016), wood waste (Ramirez et al, 2017), waste tea (Zhou et al, 2018). More recently studies has been done on wine making wastes (Alcaraz et al, 2018), chickpea waste (Özsin et al, 2019), cotton processing wastes (Sartova et al, 2019), olive branches (Alkherraz et al, 2020), rice husks (Menya et al, 2020), Indonesian Mangrove (Budianto et al, 2019), etc.…”

Pesticide Use Practices among Female Headed Households in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia

“…For example, Endosulfan, officially registered for cotton, is a pesticide most FHHs purchased and used because the organochlorine insecticide was perceived to be efficient to combat insects on vegetables. In addition, DDT, introduced for public health, has been globally banned, or severely restricted from use for all agricultural purposes since 2004 [104,105] but was widely purchased and used in the study areas not only to control pests in the field but also in storage (see also previous studies in Ethiopia [12,31,[105][106][107][108][109]). These two insecticides are mostly accessible through informal markets (see also [14]).…”