Physicochemical characterization of miscanthus and its application in heavy metals removal from wastewaters

Abstract

Miscanthus species originated in Asia and were imported into Europe and North America as ornamental plants. They are perennial rhizomatous grasses with lignified stems and present very high growth rates, even in more temperate maritime climates. This potentially abundant biomass offers benefits to many sectors and is used to an extent in energy generation applications, however, issues with regards to its physicochemical combustion characteristics currently hinder this uptake. In this work, a novel alternative application, namely its direct use of dry miscanthus (DM) plant as an adsorbent for heavy metals removal (HMR) from wastewaters, was investigated. The physical, chemical, and leaching properties of DM were analyzed using XRD, SBET, TGA, DSC, SEM‐EDX, elemental analysis, halogen, and ICP techniques. Subsequently, the HMR capacity of miscanthus was studied for lead, copper, and zinc from aqueous solutions. Results showed a high percentage removal of 66%, 83%, and 88%, respectively, with the majority being removed during the first hour of the test. Overall the results show that DM plant can be effectively utilized in wastewater treatment. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 37: 1058–1067, 2018

The production and application of carbon nanomaterials from high alkali silicate herbaceous biomass

“…The DMP showed a typical lignocellulosic biomass composition of 41-45 wt.% C, 5.7-5.9 wt.% H, 1.2-1.8 wt.% N and 47-50 wt.% O along with a minor contribution of sulphur ~0.2 wt.%, this is in agreement with the previous publication 30 . The SEM images of the DMP in previous work showed large fibrils arranged in the fascicular texture form 30 . Figure 3 shows the SEM images of the ACs either with phosphoric acid (AC-P) or potassium hydroxide (AC-K) along with the CNTs at a different level of magnifications using the ETD detector.…”

Production and characterisation of activated carbon and carbon nanotubes from potato peel waste and their application in heavy metal removal.

“…The ultimate analysis of PPW showed a wt% of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur of 41.9, 5.6, 1.6 and < 0.3 wt%, respectively. The results are in agreement with the previous publication which showed that the typical composition of lignocellulosic biomass is approximately 41-45 wt% C, 5.7-5.9 wt% H, 1.2-1.8 wt% N and 0.2 wt% S (Osman et al 2018). During the production of ACs and CNTs, the wt% of carbon significantly increased to approximately 70 wt%, which is in agreement with the EDX results shown in Table 1.…”

“…4 for raw PPW and CNTs samples at multiple heating rates under a nitrogen atmosphere. The holocellulose components decompose easier than lignin in general; where hemicellulose and cellulose decompose in the temperature range of 200-375°C and 275-380°C, respectively, whereas lignin decomposes at a temperature range of 180-550°C (Osman et al 2017, Osman et al 2018. Liang et al reported that PPW showed a thermal decomposition that was in the temperature range of 200-500°C, where herein, it was in the temperature range of 217-500 o C (Liang &McDonald 2014).…”

Natural and Chemically Modified Post-Mining Clays—Structural and Surface Properties and Preliminary Tests on Copper Sorption

“…The use of clays as low-cost adsorbents is in accordance with the directions for mining waste management indicated in directive 2006/21/EC on the management of waste from extractive industries [20]. There is also a noticeable trend of using natural materials in adsorption, including both waste rocks [21] as well as agricultural waste materials [22]. The clays as well as other materials are often modified thermally [23,24] or chemically [25][26][27] to enhance their adsorptive properties.…”