Evaluation of the Environmental Performance of Adsorbent Materials Prepared from Agave Bagasse for Water Remediation: Solid Waste Management Proposal of the Tequila Industry

Abstract

In the present research work, the use of agro-industrial waste such as agave bagasse from the tequila industry was carried out. The agave bagasse was treated to obtain biosorbent and hydrochar materials. Direct Blue 86 was used as an adsorbate model to evaluate the performance of both materials. The adsorption studies showed an adsorption capacity of 6.49 mg g−1 in static and 17.7 mg g−1 in dynamic, associated with a physisorption process between functional groups of the material and the dye. The characterization of the biosorbent showed that the material was mainly composed of macroporous fibers with a surface area <5.0 m2 g−1. Elemental analysis showed a majority composition of C (57.19 wt%) and O (37.49 wt%). FTIR and XPS analyses showed that the material had C-O, C=O, -OH, O-C=O, and -NH2 surface groups. RAMAN and TGA were used to evaluate the composition, being cellulose (40.94%), lignin (20.15%), and hemicellulose (3.35%). Finally, the life-cycle assessment at a laboratory scale showed that the proposed biosorbent presents a 17% reduction in several environmental aspects compared to hydrochar, showing promise as an eco-friendly and highly efficient method for the remediation of water contaminated with dye, as well as being a promising alternative for the responsible management of solid waste generated by the tequila industry.

Assessing the Lead Removal Potential of Pineapple Waste Hydrochar in Simulated Wastewater Treatment

“…This exchange mechanism is facilitated by the greater electropositivity compared to Pb 2+ ions in the simulated wastewater (Qi et al, 2023) Additionally, ion exchange processes involving carboxylate and hydroxylate anions as acidic groups may contribute to the observed increase in metal adsorption capacity (Xu et al, 2014;Zhou et al, 2017). The -OH groups introduced by PWH serve as functional groups responsible for metal ion adsorption (Gómez-Navarro et al, 2023;Xu et al, 2014), thereby improving the metal binding capability and resulting in higher adsorption of metal ions onto PWH compared to PWB counterparts.…”