Clariant wins major contracts to supply petrochemical catalysts for China's Lihuayi Group

Abstract

The use of pesticides has increased uncontrollably due to population growth and, consequently, the increasing demand for agricultural products. At the same time, waters have become polluted with pesticides, which are demonstrated to be hazardous to both health and the environment, as well as being persistent in the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to find sustainable solutions to remove pesticides from aqueous environment, and the adsorption process using sustainable activated carbons is an interesting alternative. A review of different sustainable activated carbons derived from various biomass sources used for pesticide removal by adsorption has been included. Some sustainable activated carbons synthesized by chemical activation showed a significant development of porosity and high adsorption capacities, observing a direct relationship between adsorption capacity and surface area (SBET) of the synthesized materials. Furthermore, kinetic and isothermal models of the adsorbents for the removal of the pesticide have also been studied, concluding that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir and Freundlich equations are the best options to fit the experimental data.