Removal of naproxen from aqueous environment using porous sugarcane bagasse: impact of ionic strength, hardness and surfactant

摘要

We investigated the impact of ionic strength, hardness and surfactant on the removal of the widely used drug naproxen (NAP) onto the developed porous sugarcane bagasse (PSB). The experiments demonstrated that increases in ionic strength, surfactant and hardness impacted on the removal of NAP from aqueous phase. The surface of the developed materials showed very high (52 %) carbon content and low (2.3 %) moisture content. The presence of hydroxyl and carboxylate groups might be responsible for the removal of NAP, as confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic study. The developed material showed relatively higher surface area of 669.76 m(2) g(-1), and pore volume of 1.15 cm(3) g(-1) with average particle size of 37.5 A mu m, justifying its utility for the adsorption process. The developed material also showed heterogeneous surface morphology and graphite-like pattern. The mechanism of adsorption was explained based on spectroscopic analysis. The computed thermodynamics parameters (Delta HA degrees A = -22.03 kJ mol(-1), Delta SA degrees A = -54.53 J mol(-1) K-1 and Delta GA degrees A = - 5.50 kJ mol(-1)) confirmed the exothermic and spontaneous nature of the adsorption process. Experiments were also conducted to optimize the operating parameters for maximum possible removal of NAP from aquatic environment. Regeneration of spent adsorbent was carried out using microwave irradiation, achieving similar to 83.11 % desorption. The energy recovered from the loaded NAP in terms of higher heating value was 14.15 MJ kg(-1), further enhancing its utilization. The low cost of PSB (USD 19.49) also justifies its utilization for wastewater treatment from the economic perspective.