Iron removal from aqueous solution via ultrasound-assisted adsorption using Typha australis leaves as low cost adsorbent had been studied. The effects of various experimental parameters like mass of the Typha australis adsorbent and contact time have been investigated using a batch experiment. The adsorption kinetic data were analyzed using the Pseudo First Order (PFO) and Pseudo Second Order (PSO) models. The adsorption modeling was carried out using the Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson adsorption models. For kinetic study, the adsorption process fitted the PSO model and agreed with chemisorption. Both the Langmuir and Redlich–Peterson models were found to fit the adsorption isotherm data well, but the Redlich– Peterson model was better. The maximum adsorption capacity from the Langmuir model (qmax) was 0.84 mg/g. The results of the present work showed that the Typha australis leaf, without any treatment has a good potential for iron removal from aqueous solutions via ultrasound-assisted adsorption.

In advanced oxidation processes, the application of ozonation has been immensely used in recent years for the treatment of effluent water from pharmaceutical, textile and chemical industries. In this study, procian blue, a major and vastly used reactive dye in the textile industry was chosen for ozonation. This work investigated the effect of ozonation for the treatment of synthetic textile effluent water. The change of pH values of dye solutions from 2-12 had moderate effect on dye removal. The degradation rate was faster during the initial period of ozonation and reached highest dye removal around 90 minutes. The highest 87% removal of dye was observed for the case of 60 mg/L dye solution at pH 12. At higher pH, the dye degradation increased as the rate of formation of hydroxyl radical increased with pH. Factors influencing on dye degradation like concentration of dye, time of ozonation, and addition of H2O2 with ozone (combined treatment) were also evaluated. The combined treatment (5 g/L of hydrogen peroxide) increased the degradation of dye to 92% as compared to 85% for pure ozonation process of 60 mg/L dye solution of initial pH 10. The procian blue dye degradation followed pseudo-first order kinetics with a value of rate constant 2.48×10-2 /min.

This study utilized Swietenia mahagoni bark–a wood processing industry waste, for the preparation of activated carbon, and then investigated for the removal of methyl orange (MO) dye by the Swietenia mahagoni bark activated carbon (SMBAC). The effect of pH (3–10), adsorbent dose (1–30 g/L), initial MO dye concentration (10–100 mg/L), and contact time (1–240 min) were evaluated. The surface morphology of the SMBAC was characterized by using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Maximum removal efficiency of MO by SMBAC was 92%, when initial MO dye concentration was 10 mg/L, pH 3.0, adsorbent dose 10.0 g/L and 120 min equilibrium contact time. The adsorption data fitted well with the Freundlich (R2=0.997) and Halsey (R2=0.997) isotherm models than the Langmuir (R2=0.979) model, and express the multilayer adsorption on heterogeneous surface. The maximum adsorption capacity was 6.071 mg/g. The kinetics data were fitted well to pseudo-second order model (R2=0.999) and more than one process were involved during adsorption mechanism but film diffusion was the potential rate controlling step.  The study results showed that SMBAC adsorbed MO effectively, and could be used as a low cost potential bioadsorbent for the removal of anionic dyes in wastewater treatment.

The present study evaluates the suitability ofactivated carbon, prepared from Cane Papyrus, a plant that grows naturally and can be found quite easily, which serves as a biological sorbent for removal of  Cu2+ ions from aqueous solutions. Fourier transform infra-red analysis for the activated carbon, prepared fromCane Papyrus confirms the presence of amino (–NH), carbonyl (–C=O), and hydroxyl (–OH) functional groups with Bath mode getting used to investigate the effects of the  following parameters: adsorbent dosage (among the rates of 10, 20, and 30 g/L), pH values, Cu2+ initial concentration, and contact time. Results reveal higher efficiency (98%) of powdered adsorbent for removal of Cu2+ ions, which is found at pH=6 with 30 g/L activated carbon, prepared from Cane Papyrus, for a duration of 2 hours. The Freundlich isotherm model with linearized coefficient of 0.982 describes the adsorption process more suitably than the langmuir model, in which this rate equals to 0.899. Pseudo-second order kinetic equation best describes the kinetics of the reaction. Furthermore, it has been found that 0.5M HCl is a better desorbing agent than either 0.5 M NaOH or de-ionized water. The experimental data, obtained, demonstrate that the activated carbon prepared from Cane Papyrus can be used as a suitable adsorbent for Copper(II) ion removal from aqueous solutions.

This paper aims to study the possibility of providing a low-cost alternative for the adsorbents used in the fluoride adsorption from water by using eggshells. Indeed, eggshells were used as an adsorbent for fluoride adsorption from a drinking groundwater sample containing (2.14 mg/l) of fluoride. The eggshells were crushed and sieved into three particle sizes (0.2, 0.5, and 1mm) and then heated at different temperatures ranging from 100 to 250°C. XRD, FT-IR, pHpzc, and TG/DTA analysis were used for the characterization of the adsorbents.  Adsorption batch experiments were carried out to determine the adsorption capacity of eggshell powder such as, particle size, preparation temperature, contact time, and adsorbent dose. A spectrophotometer UV-VIS was used to assess fluoride removal efficiency. The eggshell powder heated at 250°C with 0.2mm of particle size was found to be the most efficient adsorbent, with a maximum fluoride removal efficiency of 51.4%, a maximum adsorption capacity of 0.052mg/g, and a residual fluoride concentration of 1.1mg/l within 150 minutes. The data of the adsorption kinetic on ES250°0.2 were successfully fitted with the pseudo-second-order model with a satisfying coefficient of determination (R2=0.993). The results of the intra-particle diffusion model showed a multi-linearity, revealing that the diffusion of fluoride into the adsorbent was by two stages with diffusion rate constants of Ki = 0.007 (mg /g/min1/2) and Ki = 0.001(mg /g/min1/2) for the first and second stage respectively. An adsorbent dose of 1.5g and 1 hour of contact time were sufficient to decrease fluoride concentration from 2.14 to 1.1mg/l.

This article presents that the coagulation-flocculation process is one of the water treatment processes that mainly removes dyes from aqua solution by using chemical and natural coagulants. This research was conducted to evaluate the use of chemical coagulants (ferric chloride (FeCl3), aluminum chloride (AlCl3) and natural coagulant (okra pods) to remove Vat Green 3 (VG 3) dye from aqua solution by the coagulation-flocculation process. Various experimental parameters were studied by jar test experiments such as pH, coagulant dosages, initial VG 3 dye concentration, mixing speed, and settling time. The results showed that the maximum removal efficiency of VG 3 dye was for FeCl3 97.261%, AlCl3 94.466% and okra pods 92.572% at optimum conditions pH 6 for FeCl3 and okra pods, pH 7 for AlCl3, coagulant dosage 400 mg/L for FeCl3 and AlCl3, 200 mg/L for okra pods dosage, concentration of dye 80 mg/L, mixing speed 150 rpm, and settling time 60 min for FeCl3 and AlCl3, 70 min for okra pods at room temperature 25 ± 2 oC. The maximum volume of sludge at optimum conditions was 33 mL/L, 20 mL/L, 3 mL/L for FeCl3, AlCl3, okra pods, respectively. The kinetics of the coagulation-flocculation process was obeying pseudo first order kinetics more than pseudo second order kinetics. These results indicated that the natural coagulant (okra pods) could be an alternative to chemical coagulants for removal of VG 3 dye from textile effluent due to its low cost, biodegradable, non-polluting and lower sludge production.

Duckweeds are of special interest, as they are naturally growing weeds that have the capacity to tolerate and remove toxic pollutants, including heavy metals from the environment. Studies have revealed that duckweed (Lemna minor) can tolerate and remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions. In the present study, the efficiency of L. minor in the removal of Ni and Cr individually from aqueous solutions was investigated at concentrations of 3.05, 3.98 and 4.9 mg/L for Ni and 1.91, 2.98, and 4.2 mg/L for Cr. Experiments were run for 22 days, after which the metal content in the plant was estimated by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The duckweed showed higher percentage of Ni removal than Cr. Specific Growth Rate (SGR) was found to be reduced at high concentrations of both Ni and Cr. Statistical analysis suggested that the growth of the plant was affected by the toxic effect of both Ni and Cr. Bioaccumulation of Ni was higher than Cr in L. minor. The mechanism of removal of both Ni and Cr followed second order kinetics. It is suggested that these duckweeds can remove Ni and Cr from aqueous solution and can also accumulate the same in considerable concentrations, at low initial metal concentrations.

International audience | The nanoscale size of plastic debris makes them potential efficient vectors of many pollutants and more especially of metals. In order to evaluate this ability, nanoplastics were produced from microplastics collected on a beach exposed to the North Atlantic Gyre. The nanoplastics were characterized using multi-dimensional methods: asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation and dynamic light scattering coupled to several detectors. Lead (II) adsorption kinetics, isotherm and pH-edge were then carried out. The sorption reached a steady state after around 200 min. The maximum sorption capacity varied between 97% and 78.5% for both tested Pb concentrations. Lead (II) adsorption kinetics is controlled by chemical reactions with the nanoplastics surface and to a lesser extent by intraparticle diffusion. Adsorption isotherm modeling using Freundlich model demonstrated that NPG are strong adsorbents equivalent to hydrous ferric oxides such as ferrihydrite (log against 11.76 for NPG and ferrihydrite, respectively). The adsorption is dependent upon pH, in response to the Pb(II) adsorption by the oxygenated binding sites developed on account of the surface UV oxidation under environmental conditions. They could be able to compete with Fe or humic colloids for Pb binding regards to their amount and specific areas. Nanoplastics could therefore be efficient vectors of Pb and probably of many other metals as well in the environment.

International audience | The nanoscale size of plastic debris makes them potential efficient vectors of many pollutants and more especially of metals. In order to evaluate this ability, nanoplastics were produced from microplastics collected on a beach exposed to the North Atlantic Gyre. The nanoplastics were characterized using multi-dimensional methods: asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation and dynamic light scattering coupled to several detectors. Lead (II) adsorption kinetics, isotherm and pH-edge were then carried out. The sorption reached a steady state after around 200 min. The maximum sorption capacity varied between 97% and 78.5% for both tested Pb concentrations. Lead (II) adsorption kinetics is controlled by chemical reactions with the nanoplastics surface and to a lesser extent by intraparticle diffusion. Adsorption isotherm modeling using Freundlich model demonstrated that NPG are strong adsorbents equivalent to hydrous ferric oxides such as ferrihydrite (log against 11.76 for NPG and ferrihydrite, respectively). The adsorption is dependent upon pH, in response to the Pb(II) adsorption by the oxygenated binding sites developed on account of the surface UV oxidation under environmental conditions. They could be able to compete with Fe or humic colloids for Pb binding regards to their amount and specific areas. Nanoplastics could therefore be efficient vectors of Pb and probably of many other metals as well in the environment.

In order to determine the mechanisms of the retention of 60Co, 85Sr and 134Cs in natural silica sand columns, desorption experiments were performed by changes of pH and ionic strength and by injection of natural organic matter (NOM). Injection of KCl (0.1 M) resulted in a high release of 60Co (60-100%) and 85Sr (72-100%) but a smaller release of 134Cs (31-66%). Only limited release of 60Co (66%) and 85Sr (71%) and no release of 134Cs were observed by injection of NOM. The different percentages of desorption were related to the chemical characteristics of the organic colloids previously retained in columns before the desorption step. The results evidenced different sorption processes on energetically heterogeneous surface sites. According to the initial conditions, the binding of the radionuclides to the solid phase resulted from weak and easily reversible sorption processes to strong association probably by inner sphere complexes. The rather weak release of 134Cs by KCl was attributed to the strong retention of 134Cs by clay coatings on the natural silica sand surfaces. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.