Performance of activated carbons developed from different biomass precursors and activation strategies in an emerging contaminant removal

G.V. NUNELL; H. RODRIGUEZ ORTIZ; C.GOMEZ VARGAS; E. GOMEZ DELGADO; P.R. BONELLI; A. L. CUKIERMAN

Buenos Aires

Simposio; GS06 Global Symposium on Emerging Contaminants: Recent Advances on Removal Treatments of Emerging Contaminants from Wastewater, en el marco del WCCE11 ? 11th World Congress of Chemical Engineering y delCIBIQ2023 ? II Iberoamerican Congress of Chemical Eng; 2023

Adsorption technology is considered a robust and promising method for the removal of emerging contaminants, due to its relatively low implementation cost, high efficiency, simple operational design, and full-scale application feasibility. Among the adsorbents, activated carbons (ACs) are widely used in the tertiary treatment of polluted water. However, its effectiveness in the removal of some widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as diclofenac sodium (DS), which have been detected in watercourses, is still not satisfactory [1]. In this study, the feasibility of using CAs developed from Parkinsonia aculeata sawdust, Pinus canariensis cones, and apple peels (Malus domestica) generated in their industrial processing, in the removal of DS from aqueous solutions, is examined. representative way. The chemical activation process was applied using H3PO4 solution (acid/precursor ratio=2) and a temperature of 450°C for 30 min. For sawdust, the assistance of the process with microwave energy (850 W, 5 min) and, in addition, using KOH solution, as activating agent (KOH/carbonized precursor ratio=2) and microwave (MW) was examined. The yields (~24 – 47%) and the physicochemical and textural characteristics of the CAs were determined and their adsorptive behavior was evaluated from DS solutions under pre-established equilibrium conditions [1-2]. For comparative purposes, removal was also tested for a commercial sample (CAC). The CA developed from sawdust with KOH and MW reached the highest level of removal, surpassing that of CAC, despite its smaller BET area (Figure). The results indicate that the effectiveness of the CAs in the removal of DS would be a complex function of their textural characteristics as well as the chemistry of the surface, which would affect the forces and interactions that determine the adsorption mechanisms.