Paracetamol removal by Kon-Tiki kiln-derived biochar and activated carbons

Abstract

Biochar was obtained from Eucalyptus pruning residues with a non-conventional device named Kon-Tiki kiln. The average heat of combustion of the biochar, 27.3 MJ kg-1 , was higher than that of Eucalyptus wood, 17.8 MJ kg-1. Activation with CO 2 was performed by varying the activation time from 0 to 60 minutes. The activated carbons (ACs) and the carbon precursor have been characterised and tested for paracetamol removal in the liquid phase, studied in both kinetic and equilibrium aspects. ACs presented an increase in BET area (up to 845 m 2 /g), total pore volume and microporosity with the activation time. The pseudo-second order model was the one that best fitted the experimental data. Elimination of paracetamol was much faster when using ACs, 5h, than when using the biochar, 3 days. However, pollutant removal was greater than 95% for all materials, which is a promising result for lowcost biochars in a difficult economic context. All the adsorption equilibrium experiments exhibited multilayer behaviour, showing values up to 98 mg g-1 for the maximum monolayeradsorption capacity.

Biochar-mediated removal of pharmaceutical compounds from aqueous matrices via adsorption

“…The human excreta contains up to 90% unmetabolized ingested ACE. In addition, the concentration of ACE in various environmental regimes like surface waters ((0.055±0.051) μg L −1 ), effluents from European sewage treatment plants (6 μg L −1 ), USA natural waters (10 μg L −1 ), Tyne River in the UK (65 μg L −1 ) and raw hospital effluents (150 μg L −1 ), is a matter of concern and poses risks to environmental quality, as well as animal and human health, and thus requires proper remediation mechanisms [ 133 ]. Biochar obtained from various feedstocks like oil palm fiber, wood chips, pomelo peels, pure glucose, MSW, etc., has been used for adsorption of ACE in the aqueous media [ 28 ].…”

Optimising production of a biochar made from conifer brash and investigation of its potential for phosphate and ammonia removal

“…Absorbance readings were performed at 880 nm for PO 4 3− -P and at 670 nm for NH 4 + -N (Seal Analytical, UK). The yield of biochar is an indication of the pyrolysis process mass efficiency (Bursztyn Fuentes et al, 2020). The following equation was used to calculate the yield of biochar:…”

Utilization of Waste-Based Sorbents for Removal of Pharmaceuticals from Water: A Review

“…Many researchers have studied adsorption of different pharmaceuticals/drugs (e.g. fluoxetine [34], sulfadiazine + sulfamethoxazole [35], paracetamol [36], acetylsalicylic acid, acetaminophen, caffeine [37], cephalexin [38], ibuprofen [4,39,40,41,42,43]) from wastewater using various types of adsorbents (e.g. AC [36,44], AC prepared by microwave and conventional heating methods [45], AC from Albizia lebbeck seed pods [38], AC in alginate polymer [46], potassium ferrate-activated porous graphitic biochar [47], amine functionalized superparamagnetic silica nanocomposite [48], porous carbons derived from metal-organic framework [43], silica particles [49], pyrolyzed tyre char [50], sludge-derived adsorbent [51], waste tea residue [52], acid-modified kola nut husk [53], AC from apricot stone [54], AC from peach stones [4], rice husk [55], NaOH-activated carbon produced from macadamia nut shells [56], walnut shell-based AC [57], multi-walled carbon nanotubes [58], natural zeolite [59], etc.…”