Chitin-psyllium based aerogel for the efficient removal of crystal violet from aqueous solutions.

A new alternative aerogel was prepared from low-cost chitin and psyllium biopolymers to adsorb crystal violet (CV) dye from liquid media and possibly treat effluents containing other dyes. The aerogel was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which demonstrated that aerogel has a typical structure of amorphous materials and presented a randomly interconnected porous structure that resembles an open pore network. 2.5 g L-1 of aerogel was able to remove 86.00% of CV from solutions, and the natural pH of the CV solution was considered the more adequate for adsorption. The pseudo-second-order (PSO) model satisfactorily described the adsorption kinetics, and the Freundlich model was suitable to represent the adsorption equilibrium. The maximum experimental capacity achieved was 227.11 mg g-1, which indicates that aerogel is very efficient and competitive with several adsorbents. Tests using a simulated effluent showed that aerogel has excellent potential to treat real colored effluents.

Adsorption of ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and paracetamol onto activated carbon prepared from effluent treatment plant sludge of the beverage industry.

The presence of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals in aquatic means presents as a serious threat, since their real consequences for the environment and human health are not well known. Therefore, this work consisted of preparing and characterize sludge-derived activated carbons (beverage sludge activated carbon - BSAC and acid-treated beverage sludge activated carbon - ABSAC) to investigate their use in the pharmaceuticals adsorption in aqueous media. The morphology study has demonstrated that ABSAC, unlike BSAC, exhibited an abundant porous structure, with smaller particles and bigger roughness. Adsorption results indicated that the ABSAC was more effective that BSAC, since it presented superior surface area (642 m2 g-1) and total pore volume (0.485 cm3 g-1) values. Pseudo-second-order kinetic model was more suitable to predict experimental data. Sips model best described the equilibrium data, with maximum adsorption capacities of 145, 105, and 57 mg g-1 for paracetamol, ibuprofen, and ketoprofen, respectively. Besides, the sludge-derived adsorbent was highly efficient in the treatment of a simulated drug effluent, removing 85.16% of the pharmaceutical compounds. Therefore, the material prepared in this work possesses intrinsic characteristics that make it a remarkable adsorbent to be applied in the treatment of pharmaceutical contaminants contained in industrial wastewater.

Development of high quality activated carbon from biological sludge and its application for dyes removal from aqueous solutions.

A high quality activated carbon was developed from biological sludge of a beverage wastewater treatment plant (BWTP). The material was characterized and its adsorption potential to remove Allura Red AC and Crystal Violet dyes from aqueous media was verified. The ACBS (activated carbon from beverage sludge) revealed mesoporous features, presenting average pore diameter of 6.32 nm, pore volume of 0.5098 cm3 g-1 and surface area of 631.8 m2 g-1. Adsorption was adequate using 0.25 g L -1 of ACBS, and, the process was favored at pH 2.0 for Allura Red AC and pH 8.0 for Crystal Violet. From the kinetic viewpoint, the data were satisfactorily represented by the pseudo-second order model. Freundlich and Sips models were suitable to represent the adsorption equilibrium of the Allura Red and Crystal Violet, respectively. The maximum values for adsorption capacities were 287.1 mg g-1 for Allura Red and 640.7 mg g-1 for Crystal Violet. The adsorption of both dyes was thermodynamically spontaneous, favorable and endothermic. In brief, the residual sludge of a wastewater treatment plant may be used as an eco-friendly precursor for ACBS production. ACBS was an efficient adsorbent material able to uptake dyes from aqueous solutions.