Removal of Atrazine from Water by Low Cost Adsorbents Derived from Agricultural and Industrial Wastes

Abstract

In the present study six adsorbents viz. wood charcoal, fly ash, coconut charcoal, saw dust, coconut fiber and baggasse charcoal were studied for their capacity to remove atrazine from water. The removal efficiency of different adsorbents varied from 76.5% to 97.7% at 0.05 ppm concentration and 78.5% to 95.5% at 0.1 ppm concentration of atrazine solution, which was less than removal efficiency of activated charcoal reported as 98% for atrazine (Adams and Watson, J Environ Eng ASCE 39:327-330, 1996). Wood charcoal was a cheap (Rs 15 kg(-1)) and easily available material in house holds. Since wood charcoal was granular in nature, it could be used for the removal of atrazine from water to the extent of 95.5%-97.7%. Fly ash is a waste product of thermal plant containing 40%-50% silica, 20%-35% alumina, 12%-30% carbon and unburnt minerals having a high pH of 9-10. It is very cheap and abundant material and has comparatively good adsorption capacity. It was found that fly ash effectively removed about 84.1%-88.5% atrazine from water at 0.05 and 0.1 ppm levels. Coconut shell is also waste product. Therefore, both are inexpensive. The removal efficiency of atrazine from water was 92.4%-95.2% by coconut shell charcoal and 85.9%-86.3% by coconut fiber. Sawdust is generally used as domestic fuel and found everywhere. It is also very cheap (Re. 1 kg(-1)). Baggasse charcoal is a waste product of sugar mill and abundant material. Its cost is due to transport expense, which depends upon distance from the sugar mill. The removal efficiency of sawdust and baggasse charcoal was found 78.5-80.5 and 76.5-84.6, respectively. The efficacy of chemically treated adsorbents for the removal of atrazine from water is in the order: wood charcoal > coconut shell charcoal > fly ash > coconut fiber charcoal > baggasse charcoal > sawdust.

Organic xenobiotics removal in constructed wetlands, with emphasis on the importance of the support matrix

“…Recent literature reports several studies on the effective adsorption of many organic compounds such as pesticides [153,154,271,[282][283][284][285][286][287][288][289], phenolic compounds [290][291][292][293][294][295], dyes [144,[296][297][298][299][300][301], PAHs [302,303], explosives [304] and pharmaceuticals and hormonal compounds [85,[305][306][307] by a variety of adsorbents prepared from agricultural wastes. The list of materials that have been tested in such studies is long (and still increasing).…”

“…The list of materials that have been tested in such studies is long (and still increasing). Some examples include pine bark [282,283,302,304,305], almond shells [292,307], banana peels [284,293], sawdust [153,285,300], coconut fibers [285], rice bran [271,287], rice husk [271,287], moringa pods [271], hazelnut shells [299,300], wood residues [286], cork wastes [85,153,154,289,295,303,306] and chickpea husk [288]. In addition, assays have also been conducted with some of these materials after submitting them to more or less complex treatments (usually thermal), e.g.…”

“…In addition, assays have also been conducted with some of these materials after submitting them to more or less complex treatments (usually thermal), e.g. chemically modified pine bark [302], almond shell ashes [307], almond shell charcoal [292], walnut shell charcoal [292], wood charcoal [285], coconut shell activated carbon [294], coconut charcoal [285], bagasse charcoal [285], bagasse fly ash [269,271] and chemically treated wood residues [286].…”

Removal strategies for endocrine disrupting chemicals using cellulose-based materials as adsorbents: A review

“…Rice husk was effective in removing iron, lead, and nickel (Hegazi, 2013). Furthermore, atrazine has been studied using sawdust as the adsorbent from water with a removal efficiency of 78.5-80.5% (Sharma et al, 2008). Almond shells and coconut fiber were evaluated as adsorbent materials in combination with two white rot fungi for BPA removal, ethinyl estradiol, linuron, dimethoate and 4-nonylphenol from wastewater.…”

Opportunities and challenges in the use of coal fly ash for soil improvements – A review

“…Many reports have highlighted the pesticide sorption potential of CFA (e.g., Konstantinou and Albanis, 2000;Majumdar and Singh, 2007) and have recommended it for removal of pesticides from wastewaters (Alam et al, 2000;Gupta and Ali, 2001;Lu et al, 2005;Akhtar et al, 2007;Sharma et al, 2008). The results of these studies indicate that the use of CFA for pesticides removal from industrial and agricultural wastewaters can be useful.…”