Chitosan Biopolymer from Crab Shell as Recyclable Film to Remove/Recover in Batch Ketoprofen from Water: Understanding the Factors Affecting the Adsorption Process

Abstract

Seafood, a delight for many people, is sold in the market as a wide variety of products. However, seafood industries produce many by-products; for example, during the processing, the heads and shells of shellfish are generated as waste. This results in the generation of a large amount of shell waste that is accumulated over time, inducing a major environmental concern. Effective solutions for recycling shell waste should be taken into consideration, and the extraction of commercially useful substances like chitin and its derivates, such as chitosan, could be a valid solution for reducing the seafood waste’s environmental impact. Thus, during this work, we propose the use of chitosan as biowaste, to induce the formation of solid films useful for decontaminating water from emerging pollutants. In particular, ketoprofen was used as a model contaminant, and a high percentage of removal, at least 90%, was obtained in a short time under our experimental conditions. Thus, a comprehensive investigation into the adsorption of ketoprofen onto chitosan film was performed, detailing the nature of the adsorption by studying the effects of pH, temperature changes, and electrolyte presence in the solutions containing the pollutant. The process was found to be pH-dependent, involving meanly electrostatic interactions between the pollutant molecules and chitosan. The endothermic character of the adsorption was inferred. The kinetics of the process was investigated, showing that the pseudo second-order kinetic model best fit the experimental data. A recycling process of the adsorbent was proposed; therefore, the adsorbed pollutant can be recovered by reusing the same adsorbent material for further consecutive cycles of adsorption without affecting the efficiency for ketoprofen removal from water.

Emerging pollutants—Part II: Treatment

“…Rizzi, Gubitosa, et al (2019), Rizzi, Lacalamita, et al (2019), Rizzi, Romanazzi, et al (2019)) also reported the study on the adsorption and removal of diclofenac from water by chitosan film. Under the experimental conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity of diclofenac on chitosan film was about 10 mg/g.…”

“…Rizzi, Gubitosa, et al (2019), Rizzi, Lacalamita, et al (2019), Rizzi, Romanazzi, et al (2019) studied and compared the removal efficiency of tetracycline in contaminated water by the olive pomace (OP) and the olive solid wastes/chitosan composite (OSW/CC). Their results showed that the adsorption capacities of OP and OSW/CC were 16 and 1.6 mg/g, respectively.…”

“…Some researchers are looking for cheap membrane materials to remove EPs in water. Rizzi, Gubitosa, et al (2019), Rizzi, Lacalamita, et al (2019), Rizzi, Romanazzi, et al (2019)) investigated the possibility of forming a solid membrane which can remove ketoprofen in water by using chitosan extracted from shellfish waste as biowaste. The results showed that more than 90% ketoprofen can be absorbed on chitosan film in a short time.…”

Novel Bioderived Composites from Wastes

“…The paper contributed by Rizzi and coworkers introduced the use of chitosan from biowaste (crab shell) to induce the formation of solid films useful for the decontamination of water from emerging pollutants [19]. In particular, ketoprofen was used as a contaminant, and a high percentage of removal, at least 90%, was shown in a short time under the proposed experimental conditions.…”

“…Moreover, five papers were related to the treatment of wastes for environmental applications. Specifically, two papers reported the reuse of egg by-products [18] and crab shell [19] for the removal of biopersistent micropollutants, and two papers reported the reuse of white bamboo fibrils as oil absorbent [20] and a rapid method for the disposal of radioactive contaminated soil waste [21], respectively. The last one reported the use of wheat straw biochar for cobalt sorption from contaminated soil [22].…”