Several agronomic waste-materials are presently being widely used as bio-adsorbents for the treatment of toxic wastes such as dyes and heavy metals from industrial activities, which has resulted in critical global environmental issues. Therefore, there is a need to continue searching for more effective means of mitigating these industrial effluents. Synthetic aromatic dyes such as Acid Brown (AB14) dye are one such industrial effluent that is causing a serious global issue owing to the huge amount of these unsafe effluents released into the ecosystem daily as contaminants. Consequently, their confiscation from the environment is critical. Hence, in this study, Mandarin-CO-TETA (MCT) derived from mandarin peels was utilized for the removal of AB14 dyes. The synthesized biosorbent was subsequently characterized employing FTIR, TGA, BET, and SEM coupled with an EDX. The biosorption of this dye was observed to be pH-dependent, with the optimum removal of this dye being noticed at pH 1.5 and was ascribed to the electrostatic interaction between the positively charged sites on the biosorbent and the anionic AB14 dye. The biosorption process of AB14 dye was ideally described by employing the pseudo-second-order (PSO) and the Langmuir (LNR) models. The ideal biosorption capacity was calculated to be 416.67 mg/g and the biosorption process was indicative of monolayer sorption of AB14 dye to MCT biosorbent. Thus, the studied biosorbent can be employed as a low-cost activated biomass-based biosorbent for the treatment of AB14 dyes from industrial activities before they are further released into the environment, thus mitigating environmental contamination.

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The synthesized biochars derived from sawdust (SD) SD ozone (SDO) biochar, purified SD (PSD) biochar, and sonicated SD (SSD) biochar, which was employed in the confiscation of methylene blue (MB) dye ion, were characterized employing “Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), and Thermal gravimetrical analysis (TGA).” The impact of various factors, such as pH, biochar dosage, and initial concentration, on MB dye sequestration, was tested in this study. It was found that the biosorption of MB dye to the various biochars was dependent on the solution pH, with optimum confiscation of MB observed at pH 12 for all biochars. Pseudo-second-order (PSO), Freundlich (FRH)- (SDO and SSD biochars), and Langmuir (LNR)- (PSD biochar) models were used to best describe the biosorption process of MB dye to various biochars. Based on the LNR model fitting to the experimental data, the optimum sorption capacities obtained using SDO, SSD, and PSD biochars were 200, 526, and 769 mg/g, respectively. Electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonding played an important role in the interaction mechanism between the various biochars and MB dye. Hence, these studied SDO, PSD, and SSD biochars prepared from cheap, easily accessible, biodegradable, and non-hazardous agro-waste materials can be effectively used for the removal, treatment, and management of MB dye as well as other industrial effluents before their disposal into the environment.

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The difference between physical activations (by sonications) and chemical activations (by ammonia) on sawdust biochar has been investigated in this study by comparing the removal of Cu(II) ions from an aqueous medium by adsorption on sawdust biochar (SD), sonicated sawdust biochar (SSD), and ammonia-modified sawdust biochar (SDA) with stirring at room temperature, pH value of 5.5–6.0, and 200 rpm. The biochar was prepared by the dehydrations of wood sawdust by reflux with sulfuric acid, and the biochar formed has been activated physically by sonications and chemically by ammonia solutions and then characterized by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR); Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET); scanning electron microscope (SEM); thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA); and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) analyses. The removal of Cu(II) ions involves 100 mL of sample volume and initial Cu(II) ion concentrations (conc) 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, and 200 mg L−1 and the biochar doses of 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 mg. The maximum removal percentage of Cu(II) ions was 95.56, 96.67, and 98.33% for SD, SSD, and SDA biochars, respectively, for 50 mg L−1 Cu(II) ion initial conc and 1.0 g L−1 adsorbent dose. The correlation coefficient (R2) was used to confirm the data obtained from the isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm model was best fitted to the experimental data of SD, SSD, and SDA. The maximum adsorption capacities (Qm) of SD, SSD, and SDA are 91.74, 112.36, and 133.33 mg g−1, respectively. The degree of fitting using the non-linear isotherm models was in the sequence of Langmuir (LNR) (ideal fit) > Freundlich (FRH) > Temkin (SD and SSD) and FRH (ideal fit) > LNR > Temkin (SDA). LNR and FRH ideally described the biosorption of Cu(II) ions to SD and SSD and SDA owing to the low values of χ2 and R2 obtained using the non-linear isotherm models. The adsorption rate was well-ordered by the pseudo-second-order (PSO) rate models. Finally, chemically modified biochar with ammonia solutions (SDA) enhances the Cu(II) ions’ adsorption efficiency more than physical activations by sonications (SSD). Response surface methodology (RSM) optimization analysis was studied for the removal of Cu(II) ions using SD, SSD, and SDA biochars.