Comparison of the adsorption capacity of acetaminophen on sugarcane bagasse and corn cob by dynamic simulation

Abstract

Acetaminophen (ACT), an antipyretic analgesic, is one of the emerging pollutants that has been found in high concentrations in domestic and hospital wastewaters. This study 7the adsorption capacity of sugarcane bagasse (SB) and corn cob (CC) for the ACT removal through the dynamic simulation of the adsorption column using Aspen Adsorption® V10. The effects of flow rate (1.5–3.0 mL min− 1), ACT initial concentration (40–80 mg L− 1), and bed height (20–35 cm) on the breakthrough curves were studied. Finally, the simulation results were validated with experimental studies, and analyzed by error functions, sum of squared errors (SSE), absolute average deviation (AAD), and coefficient of determination (R2). Based on the predicted breakthrough curves, ACT is adsorbed in greater quantity on CC, with saturation times and adsorption capacity greater than SB in all simulations. The maximum adsorption capacity was 0.47 and 0.32 mg g− 1 for CC and SB, respectively, under condition of flow rate of 1.5 mL min− 1, bed height of 25 cm, and ACT initial concentration of 80 mg L− 1. Breakthrough and saturation times were higher when the column operated at low flow rates, large bed height, and low ACT concentrations, for both adsorbents. The predicted and experimental breakthrough curves satisfactorily coincided with R2 values greater than 0.97, SSE and AAD values ​​less than 5% and 0.2, respectively, for all studies. The experimental adsorption capacity was greater for CC than for SB, thus confirming that the software is able to predict which adsorbent may be more effective for ACT removal. The results of this study would speed up the search for effective materials to remove ACT from wastewaters.

Aspen adsorption simulation on biosorption between water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and Pb (II) ions in packed bed column

“…From Table 7 as the breakthrough time increases for Study A, B and C, when the h increases from 0.25 m to 1 m. This is because when the h increases, the number of biosorbent particles within the bed column increases, as well as the total surface area and the number of active sites available for adsorption of Pb (II) ions also increases (Juela, 2020), which leads to the increased amount of Pb (II) ions being adsorbed. Since Co ions is keep constant, the present of more biosorbent particles increases the breakthrough time of the bed column as shown in Figure 3.…”

“…The interparticle voidage is needed in the bed configuration during the simulation in Aspen Adsorption and was calculated based on Equation 3 (Nieva et al, 2019). For Table 3, as water was used as solvent for all the studies, the association factor of solvent for water is 2.26 and the molecular weight of the water is 18.01 g/mol (Juela, 2020). The dynamic viscosity of the solvent is assumed to be the same as the dynamic viscosity of the solution and both are assumed to be the same as the dynamic viscosity of the water at respective temperature (Wright State University, 2022).…”

“…In higher Q, the Pb (II) ions have shorter residence time in the bed column, which results in shorter contact time with the water hyacinth biosorbent. This results in less opportunities for the Pb (II) ions to reach the meso and micropores of the adsorbent, resulting lesser chances for adsorption equilibrium between the Pb (II) ions and the surface of the pores to occur (Juela, 2020;Mishra et al, 2016;Zhong et al, 2019). Therefore, the maximum adsorption capacity of most biosorbent particle will not be reached resulting the bed column exhaust at an increase rate as well as the decrease in breakthrough time of the bed column.…”

“…The flow rate, temperature and pressure for both feed and product streams are the same, assuming that the pressure drop is zero. The concentration of Pb (II) ions for the product stream was set to zero to determine the breakthrough time(Juela, 2020). For bed configuration, under the general tab, discretization method selected is Upwind Difference Scheme 1 (UDS 1) and the number of nodes is set as by default.…”

Novel plantain peel activated carbon–supported zinc oxide nanocomposites (PPAC-ZnO-NC) for adsorption of chloroquine synthetic pharmaceutical used for COVID-19 treatment

“…Although various adsorbents have been applied for the uptake of pollutants ranging from biochar's, zeolites, clay, etc., the activated carbon has however been found to be an effective adsorbent for the uptake of inorganic and organic micropollutants [9]. Low-cost materials have also been extensively studied as alternative adsorbents for pharmaceuticals and recent studies have shown that banana stalk [10], corn cob and sugarcane bagasse [11], rice husk [12], argan tree nutshell [13], etc. could be used effectively as adsorbents.…”