The Adsorption of Ammonium Nitrogen from Milking Parlor Wastewater Using Pomegranate Peel Powder for Sustainable Water, Resources, and Waste Management

Abstract

Agricultural wastewater poses serious risks to the environment due to how it is injudiciously used and managed. We investigated the use of pomegranate peel powder (PPP) to adsorb ammonium ions from milking parlor wastewater, which is applied as a nitrogen source for cropland fertilization despite its environmental ramifications. As a valueless by-product of juice and jam industries, PPP shows promising features and characteristics as a potential bio-adsorbent for ammonium nitrogen removal and recovery. The surface characterization of PPP was performed by zeta potential measurement and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) analysis. The adsorption studies were carried out by batch experiments where the initial ammonium nitrogen (NH4–N) concentration of studied wastewater was 80 mg/L. The effects of different operational parameters, such as pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, stirring speed, and temperature, were investigated. From kinetic studies, the equilibrium time was found to be 120 min, achieving an 81.8% removal synonym of ~2.5 mg/g NH4–N uptake. The adsorption isotherm data fitted well with Langmuir model with correlation (R2) > 0.99. Meanwhile, the kinetics followed pseudo-second order model with correlation (R2) > 0.99.

Application of Pistacia atlantica Leaves Powder as Natural Material To Remove Nitrate and Phosphate Ions From Domestic Wastewater by Characterization, Bio-removal, and Phytotoxicity Studies

“…A series of experiments were conducted to study the effect of plant powders dose, contact time, temperature, and pH to removing nitrate and phosphate from domestic wastewater (Table 2) by batch adsorption method with some modification (6,17). 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks each with 100 mL of domestic wastewater with a laboratory shaker at 150 rpm, the water was filtered after treatment with Whatman (No.45).…”

“…Several chemical, physical and biological techniques have been used to remove nitrate and phosphate, such as biological de-nitrification, electrocoagulation, reverse osmosis, electro-dialysis, ion exchange, and chemical precipitation by aluminium sulfate and iron sulfate, and membrane technology (7), but these technologies are expensive, requires additional operation and maintenance costs, and produces large amounts of toxic sludge. Therefore, use of plant waste as an adsorbent in wastewater treatment is an effective and inexpensive alternative, as it is highly efficient, environmentally friendly and renewable (3), such as removing heavy metals (4), and chemical ions (5,6) from water. More than 90% of phosphate was removed from aqueous solutions using Phoenix dactylifera powder at 120 min, 18 °C, pH 5, a shaking rate of 200 rpm, and an initial phosphate concentration of 50 mg/L (8), 80% removal of nitrate using Banana peels powder during 30 minutes, and an initial concentration of nitrate 200 mg/L (9), and removing nitrate between 96-100% and phosphates between 56-77% using leaves powders of three plant species (10).…”

Iron-Loaded Pomegranate Peel as a Bio-Adsorbent for Phosphate Removal

“…Figure 5 shows the equilibrium time for PO 4 3− removal by IL-PP, which was studied using two different doses of IL-PP (100 and 150 mg) and fixed values for the PO 4 -P concentration (40 mg•L −1 ), pH (9), and temperature (25 • C). Within the first 2 min, rapid PO 4 3− uptake took place with removal rates of 51% and 76.5% for 100 and 150 mg, respectively, of IL-PP.…”

“…Expanding agricultural activities in addition to irresponsible food production and consumption has resulted in more than 1.3 billion tons of agricultural and food waste deposited annually according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which has had several environmental, financial, and social implications [8,9]. Although reducing this waste is one of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, efforts remain insufficient because more awareness and radical changes are needed in consumer attitudes and economic policies of countries.…”

“…To mitigate this problem, various revalorization methods have been introduced, such as the production of valuable compounds for essential oils [20,21], food additives [22], and medicinal products [23], as well as energy and value-added products such as bioethanol and biogas [24,25]. PP is increasingly being used as a bio-adsorbent for heavy metals, dyes, and other contaminants [9,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. The present study investigated the efficiency of activated PP at phosphate removal from an aqueous solution.…”