Diclofenac removal from wastewater by activated carbon

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals have been widely found in wastewater. Among them, diclofenac was detected at the highest frequency; in this study, the commercial activated carbon was used to remove diclofenac from synthetic wastewater. Various testing methods were applied to evaluate the efficiency of the activated carbon for removing diclofenac from residues wastewater such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET), and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). the operating conditions were determined by using a batch reactor with various parameters such as different pH, diclofenac concentration, and different mass of activated carbon. the result of operations conditions was: pH 5, diclofenac concentration is 1000 mg/l mass of activated carbon is 500gm/L, While, the difference of initial Ibuprofen concentration, flow rate, and bed depth was determined by packed bed reactor, it was found 2cm for bed height, and flow rate 25 l/hr, Diclofenac concentration, 625mg/l. from adsorption equilibrium and with Langmuir and Freundlich models, the kinetic constants were determined, also shown the pseudo-first-order gave the best result, and more suitable for the removal of Diclofenac by adsorbed activation carbon.