Pharmaceuticals have been widely remaining contaminants in wastewater, and diclofenac is the most common pharmaceutical pollutant. Therefore, the removal of diclofenac from aqueous solutions using activated carbon produced by pyrocarbonic acid and microwaves was investigated in this research. Apricot seed powder and pyrophosphoric acid (45 wt%) were selected as raw material and activator respectively, and microwave irradiation technique was used to prepare the activated carbon. The raw material was impregnated in pyrophosphoric acid at 80◦C with an impregnation ratio of 1: 3 (apricot seeds to phosphoric acid), the impregnation time was 4 h, whereas the power of the microwave was 700 watts with a radiation time of 20 min. A series of experiments were conducted at constant mixing speed (300 revolutions per minute) to evaluate the effect of experimental factors likes, adsorption time, pH of diclofenac solution, diclofenac initial concentration, and dosage of activated carbon on removal efficiency. The design of experiments (version 13 Stat-Ease) was implemented using the central composite method to define the optimum effect of the process factors on the removal efficiency. The analysis of variance showed that the quadratic model for the experiment was significant with a very low probability value (P- value < 0.0001). The adjusted R2 of the model was 0.9826 and the predicted R2 was 0.9574. Whereas the optimum conditions suggested by the model for the process variable were found to be 150 min, 3.25 pH, 30 mg/L, 0.267g, for adsorption time, pH of diclofenac solution, diclofenac initial concentration, a dosage of activated carbon, respectively and the maximum removal efficiency was found to be 94.6%. The data obtained from the experiments were fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich models and the results show that the data was well fitted Langmuir model with R2 = 0.9685 as compared to the Freundlich model which has R2 = 0.93249. Likewise, the data was analyzed by pseudo first and second-order kinetic models and the results show that the adsorption on apricot-activated carbon was well adequate with the pseudo-second-order model.
In the present work, tetracycline (TC) was removed from a simulated wastewater through a new photo-anodic oxidation process with a rotating graphite cylinder anode. The effects of current density, pH, rotation speed, and NaCl addition were evaluated. The results confirmed that increasing the current density results in improving the removal of TC. However, increasing the current density beyond 5 mA/cm2 had little effect on TC removal. Results revealed that TC removal using photoanodic oxidation can be achieved at high performance with an initial pH of 5. Increasing or decreasing pH beyond this value has a negative effect on TC removal. Increasing rotation speed gave better performance for TC removal due to the increase in mass t
... Show MoreModified bentonite has been used as effective sorbent material for the removal of acidic dye (methyl orange) from aqueous solution in batch system. The natural bentonite has been modified using cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) in order to obtain an efficient sorbent through converting the properties of bentonite from hydrophilic to organophilic. The characteristics of the natural and modified bentonite were examined through several analyses such as Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Surface area. The batch study was provided the maximum dye removal efficiency of 88.75 % with a sorption capacity of 555.56 mg/g at specified conditions (150 min, pH= 2, 250 rpm, and 0.
... Show MoreThe Electro-Fenton oxidation process is one of the essential advanced electrochemical oxidation processes used to treat Phenol and its derivatives in wastewater. The Electro-Fenton oxidation process was carried out at an ambient temperature at different current density (2, 4, 6, 8 mA/cm2) for up to 6 h. Sodium Sulfate at a concentration of 0.05M was used as a supporting electrolyte, and 0.4 mM of Ferrous ion concentration (Fe2+) was used as a catalyst. The electrolyte cell consists of graphite modified by an electrodepositing layer of PbO2 on its surface as anode and carbon fiber modified with Graphene as a cathode. The results indicated that Phenol concentration decreases with an increase in current dens
... Show MoreRemoving Congo red (CR) is critical in wastewater treatment. We introduce a combination of electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) to address the elimination of CR. We also discuss the deposition of triple oxides (Cu–Mn–Ni) simultaneously on both anodic and cathodic graphite electrodes at constant current density. These electrodes efficiently worked as anodes in the EC-EO system. The EC-CO combination eliminated around 98 % of the CR dye and about 95 % of the Chemical Oxygen demand (COD), and similar results were obtained with the absence of NaCl. Thus, EC-EO is a promising technique to remove CR in an environmentally friendly pathway.