Efficiency of Spherosome for Removal of Chloroform from Water

Abstract

Spherosomes were elucidated to be a key for removal of chloroform by rice bran (Adachi, A.; Okano, T. Chemosphere 2002, 46, 87-92). On the basis of the above findings, a large amount of spherosomes was separated from rice bran using an industrial scale machine in order to investigate direct removal of chloroform by spherosome from tap water. The efficiency of removal of chloroform from water by rice bran spherosome was evaluated. Equilibrium adsorption isotherms conformed to the Freundlich isotherm (log-log linear). Adsorption of this compound by spherosome was observed in the pH range of 1-12. At equilibrium, the adsorption efficiency of spherosome for chloroform was higher than that of rice bran or activated carbon in the high chloroform concentration range (concentration>0.1 g/L). In the low chloroform concentration range (concentration<0.08 g/L), activated carbon adsorbs more chloroform than spherosome, but the adsorbed amount by spherosome is of the same order as that by activated carbon, which is several orders higher than that by rice bran. Chloroform was removed from tap water with an average removal efficiency of 90% after 90 min when spherosome (2 g/L) was added to tap water containing 0.105 mg/L of chloroform.