Abstract
The pace of industrialization and rapid population growth in countries such as India entail an increased input of industrial and sanitary organic micropollutants, the so-called emerging contaminants (EC), into the environment. The emission of EC, such as pharmaceuticals, reaching Indian water bodies causes a detrimental effect on aquatic life and ultimately on human health. However, the financial burden of expanding sophisticated water treatment capacities renders complementary, cost-efficient alternatives, such as adsorption, attractive. Here we show the merits of washed and milled pigeon pea husk (PPH) as low-cost adsorbent for the removal of the EC trimethoprim (TMP) and atenolol (ATN) that are among the most detected pharmaceuticals in Indian waters. We found a linear increase in adsorption capacity of PPH for TMP and ATN at concentrations ranging from 10 to 200 μg/L and from 50 to 400 μg/L, respectively, reflecting the concentrations occurring in Indian water bodies. Investigation of adsorption kinetics using the external mass transfer model (EMTM) revealed that film diffusion resistance governed the adsorption process of TMP or ATN onto PPH. Moreover, analysis of the adsorption performance of PPH across an extensive range of pH and temperature illustrated that the highest adsorption loadings achieved concurred with actual conditions of Indian waters. We anticipate our work as starting point towards the development of a feasible adsorbent system aiming at low-cost water treatment.
Highlights
Worldwide access to clean water poses one of the greatest global challenges amidst a rapidly growing world population [1]
The micrographs acquired displayed a distinct difference in the surface morphology of the inner and outer surfaces of the pigeon pea husk (PPH) particles (Figure 1A,B); both sides were characterized by the regularity of their respective patterns
PPH exhibited a linear increase in adsorption capacity upon increasing concentrations of TMP and ATN considering the order of magnitude of actual concentrations of these pharmaceuticals found in Indian waters
Summary
Worldwide access to clean water poses one of the greatest global challenges amidst a rapidly growing world population [1] This endeavor becomes complex due to the continuous deterioration of water quality caused by intensified anthropogenic activities in light of an increasing population [2]. Agricultural growth, and unstructured urbanization cause the entry of untreated sanitary waste, industrial effluents, and runoff from agricultural lands into water bodies and their contamination [1,3] In this context, a broad group of organic micropollutants, the so-called emerging contaminants (EC), which were historically considered to be of minor concern given their distribution and concentration, have recently received particular attention. With the intensification of human activities and advances in analytical techniques, there is increasing awareness of EC and their adverse effects on the environment and human health
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