Optimization of Chitosan Surface Response Methodology (Natural and Commercial) Used for Chromium Ion Removal from Wastewater across Different Parameters

Chromium is one of the most significant metals used in the industry. There are many techniques for treating different types of industrial waste water that include chromium ion. In this study, the authors successfully adsorbed the chromium ion from alkaline aqueous solutions using different prepared types of chitosan as adsorbent materials. For the simultaneous sorption behaviour, the adsorption potential of the produced adsorbent was investigated for Cr+6 in a batch system. Natural chitosan was extracted from shrimp shell as it contains about 8–10% chitin which is used in the production of chitosan. The removal percentage of Cr+6 reached 99% after grafting natural and commercial chitosan at specific conditions. Several isotherm models have been used for mechanistic studies. The results indicated that the adsorption data for commercial chitosan is well-fitted by the Freundlich isotherm, Langmuir for commercial grafted, natural and natural grafted chitosan. Kinetic and equilibrium studies showed that the experimental data of Cr+6 were better described by the pseudo-first-order model for commercial chitosan and fitted the pseudo-second-order model for different types of chitosan used. Significantly, in order to scale this effective strategy on an industrial scale, response surface methodology (RSM) was used as a modelling tool to optimise process parameters such as ion concentrations, utilising Statistica Software.

Sorption of cationic dyes from aqueous solutions by moss Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus: Kinetics and equilibrium studies

With the aim to investigate sorption properties of natural sorbent prepared from moss Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus we elucidated biosorption of cationic dyes Malachite green (BG4), Auramine O (BY2) and Thioflavine T (BY1) from aqueous solutions. The removal of dyes by moss biosorbent was found to be rapid at an initial stage and the equilibrium was reached within 1-2 hours. The pseudo-n-order kinetic model was successfully applied to the kinetic data and the order of adsorption reaction was calculated in the range from 1.7 to 2.6. The value of rate constant kn' ranged from 0.001 to 0.039 [min-1]/[μmol/g]1-n. The equilibrium data were fitted to the adsorption isotherms. The Freundlich isotherm was found to represent the measured sorption data of BG4, BY1 and BY2 well. The maximum sorption capacities of moss biomass from single dye solutions calculated by Langmuir equation were 354 μmol/g for BG4, 310 μmol/g for BY1 and 382 μmol/g for BY2. These results showed that the prepared biomass presents low-cost, natural and easy available sorbent which may be potentially used for removal of dyes from environment and also may be an alternative to more costly materials such as activated carbon.

Adsorption Capacities of Iron Hydroxide for Arsenate and Arsenite Removal from Water by Chemical Coagulation: Kinetics, Thermodynamics and Equilibrium Studies

Arsenic (As)-laden wastewater may pose a threat to biodiversity when released into soil and water bodies without treatment. The current study investigated the sorption properties of both As(III, V) oxyanions onto iron hydroxide (FHO) by chemical coagulation. The potential mechanisms were identified using the adsorption models, ζ-potential, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FT-IR) analysis. The results indicate that the sorption kinetics of pentavalent and trivalent As species closely followed the pseudo-second-order model, and the adsorption rates of both toxicants were remarkably governed by pH as well as the quantity of FHO in suspension. Notably, the FHO formation was directly related to the amount of ferric chloride (FC) coagulant added in the solution. The sorption isotherm results show a better maximum sorption capacity for pentavalent As ions than trivalent species, with the same amount of FHO in the suspensions. The thermodynamic study suggests that the sorption process was spontaneously exothermic with increased randomness. The ζ-potential, FT-IR and XRD analyses confirm that a strong Fe-O bond with As(V) and the closeness of the surface potential of the bonded complex to the point of zero charge (pHzpc) resulted in the higher adsorption affinity of pentavalent As species than trivalent ions in most aquatic conditions. Moreover, the presence of sulfates, phosphates, and humic and salicylic acid significantly affected the As(III, V) sorption performance by altering the surface properties of Fe precipitates. The combined effect of charge neutralization, complexation, oxidation and multilayer chemisorption was identified as a major removal mechanism. These findings may provide some understanding regarding the fate, transport and adsorption properties onto FHO of As oxyanions in a complex water environment.

Development and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Olive Pomace: Experimental Design, Kinetic and Equilibrium Studies in Nimesulide Adsorption

The lack of adequate treatment for the removal of pollutants from domestic, hospital and industrial effluents has caused great environmental concern. Therefore, there is a need to develop materials that have the capacity to treat these effluents. This work aims to develop and characterize an activated charcoal from olive pomace, which is an agro-industrial residue, for adsorption of Nimesulide in liquid effluent and to evaluate the adsorption kinetics and equilibrium using experimental design. The raw material was oven dried at 105 °C for 24 h, ground, chemically activated in a ratio of 1:0.8:0.2 of olive pomace, zinc chloride and calcium hydroxide and thermally activated by pyrolysis in a reactor of stainless steel at 550 °C for 30 min. The activated carbon was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray Diffractometry (XRD), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) method, Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), density and zero charge potential analysis. The surface area obtained was 650.9 m2 g−1. The kinetic and isothermal mathematical models that best described the adsorption were PSO and Freundlich and the highest adsorption capacity obtained was 353.27 mg g−1. The results obtained showed the good performance of activated carbon produced from olive pomace as an adsorbent material and demonstrated great potential for removing emerging contaminants such as Nimesulide.

Integrated experimental and theoretical insights for Malachite Green Dye adsorption from wastewater using low cost adsorbent

Water pollution is one of the problems that threaten humanity, and to confront it with only experimental procedures is not enough. It is necessary to integrate both practical methods and theoretical calculations to achieve decontamination with the most accurate interpretation. Hence, discussing the experimental mechanism study of MG dye adsorption with the help of the application of DFT calculations is the main goal of this article herein. The experimental results affirmed that the preparation of γ-Al2O3 by precipitation method using (NH4)2CO3 improved the porosity, the surface capability, and the adsorbent capacities (qmax = 210 mg/g) at optimum condition compared with the previous studies. Kinetic and equilibrium studies referred that the adsorption follows the pseudo-second order model and Freundlich isotherm model, respectively. Also, the calculated and observed thermodynamic parameters exerted positive values of (ΔH°) and (ΔS°) which translates into endothermic process with increasing disorder of the system. Theoretical calculations at DFT- B3LYP/6-31G (d,P) level of theory were calculated to show the selectivity of using the cationic form of the Malachite Green (MG) in the experimental measurements to find interaction mechanism. The electronic structure and intramolecular charge transfer of (MG), its cationic form and the complex of MG-Al were investigated theoretically at the B3LYP/6-31 G (d,p) level of theory. The equilibrium geometries of (MG), its cationic form and the complex of MG-Al were determined, and it was found that these geometries are non-planar. The EHOMO and ELUMO energies can be used to calculate the global properties; chemical hardness (η), softness (S) and electronegativity (χ). The calculated nonlinear optical parameters (NLO) of the studied compounds; the electronic dipole moment (μ), first-order hyperpolarizability (β), the hyper-Rayleigh scattering (βHRS) and the depolarization ratio (DR)) showed promising optical properties. Finally, the computational and the experimental results indicated that the adsorption efficiency of MG from wastewater was directly associated with the dye electrophilicity power.