Pharmaceuticals,
including caffeine (CFN) and diclofenac sodium
(DCF), are a group of emerging pollutants which have the capacity
to prompt harmful effects in flora and fauna, even at relatively low
concentrations. Additionally, CFN has been determined as one of the
most ubiquitous active compounds in the natural environment, whereas
DCF is a widely used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that has
been detected in environmental sources around the world. Conversely,
the fique is a plant of the Agavaceae family and of the Fucraea genus.Two
native species are cultivated in Colombia, Furcraea cabuya and Furcrae macrophylla, in order to extract their
fiber, but in this process a lot of waste is produced. In this study,
with the fique residues, thermochemical treatments were carried out
and 5 biochar samples were obtained, which were calorimetrically characterized
and used to investigate their behavior in competitive adsorption of
DCF and CFN. The results of the calorimetric studies show that the
biochar prepared from fique bagasse have different porous and chemical
characteristics, which is related to the different treatments that
were used at the time of their preparation. In addition, it was established
that the results of the adsorbate–adsorbent interactions determined
by calorimetry allow correlation of the adsorption processes of the
molecules under study (CFN and DCF). The results show that the NaOH
fique biochar (FB850-3Na) presents the highest adsorption capacity
in both simple and competitive tests.