Adsorbent Minimization for Removal of Ibuprofen from Water in a Two-Stage Batch Process

Abstract

Pharmaceutical products in water, also known as personal pharmaceutical products or PCPPs, are developing contaminants that have the potential to impair human health and the environment in a variety of ecosystems. In this work, waste date stones, a waste product obtained from the seedless dates manufacturing industry, were used to make acid-activated carbon. This material has been utilized to extract the medicinal component ibuprofen from water, with a high adsorption capacity of 126 mg ibuprofen per g of waste date stone-generated activated carbon. A design study was conducted to minimize the amount of activated carbon required, utilizing a two-stage batch adsorption system to optimize the usage of the activated carbon. To test the model and compare the quantities of adsorbent required in the two-stage and single-stage systems under various conditions, several variables were entered into the design model.

The use of agro-waste-based adsorbents as sustainable, renewable, and low-cost alternatives for the removal of ibuprofen and carbamazepine from water

“…Multiple basic, acid, and salt activators were tested, including potassium and sodium peroxides, zinc, and ammonium chlorides, however, orthophosphoric acid preserved the highest sorption capacity among all [ 80 ]. Date stones are another type of agricultural waste that was tested [ 40 ]. The study estimates that a notable 90,000 tons of AC can be produced with only 10% of the available date stone waste.…”

“…Membrane filtration technologies are also applied in the remediation of emerging organic contaminants. However, these are often restricted due to membrane fouling caused by the presence of other organic matter in the water being treated [ 40 ]. Other processes include biological degradation and phytoremediation, involving microbial digestion and plant extraction of the contaminants, respectively [ 41 ].…”

Sequential Separation of Cobalt and Lithium by Sorption: Sorbent Set Selection

“…This is a significant advantage over a single-stage adsorption (non-selective) of the two metals on the same adsorbent. In single-stage, it would be necessary a higher amount of adsorbent due to the non-selective adsorption [42]. Dolomite, diatomite, barite, activated mesoporous carbon, natural and commercial zeolites were evaluated.…”