Physico-chemical study of dew melon peel biochar for chromium attenuation from simulated and actual wastewaters

Abstract

This work introduces a biochar as novel adsorbent prepared from the dew melon peel by pyrolysis method, and demonstrates its potential for eliminating Cr(VI) from simulated and actual wastewaters. The dew melon peel biochar (DPB) was characterized by several techniques and methodologies such as, BET, SEM, FTIR, Boehm titration, ultimate analysis, and pHzpc. DPB is a microporous material with the BET specific surface area of 196 m2/g. The effects of different parameters including pH, amount of adsorbent, Cr(VI) concentration, and mixing time on the removal of Cr(VI) from wastewater were studied. Maximum adsorption (98.6%) was observed at pH 6 and 100 mg/L metal concentration. The equilibrium adsorption was analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms. Kinetic data were evaluated by pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, intraparticle diffusion, film diffusion (Boyd), Elovich, and Avrami models. The kinetic data were best fitted to the pseudo-second order model. The Langmuir isotherm model gives the better correlation to predict the adsorption equilibrium, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 198.7 mg/g. The thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of Cr(VI) was endothermic and spontaneous. Competition between the co-existing ions of Cl−, NO 3 − , SO 4 2− , PO 4 3− , and HCO 3 − on the adsorption process was studied. The efficacy of DPB was successfully examined by analyzing the removal of Cr(VI) from two industrial wastewaters. The results indicate that DPB is promising as an effective and economical adsorbent for Cr(VI) ions removal and could be repeatedly used with no significant loss of adsorption efficiency.