Abstract
The management of agricultural waste is an important issue related to environment protection, as the inappropriate disposal of this waste yields negative effects on the environment. Proper management of industrial effluents is totally aligned with sustainable development goal (SDG) number six “clean water and sanitation”, as well as partially related to other several SDG. In this work, two agricultural waste materials were used for vanillic acid recovery from wastewater. In this scenario, vanillic acid could be considered as both an organic pollutant present in several industrial effluents and a high added-value product when isolated. Therefore, its removal from wastewaters, as well as its recovery and isolation, are very interesting from environmental and economical points of view. Peanut and pistachio shells were studied as no-cost and readily accessible potential adsorbents for the removal and recovery of vanillic acid from aqueous solutions. The evolution of equilibrium isotherms of vanillic acid on both biosorbents was investigated. Three isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin) were tested to fit the experimental equilibrium data and compared. The Langmuir model provided the best correlation for vanillic acid biosorption onto both peanut and pistachio shells. Finally, the negative values of ΔG indicated that the biosorption process was spontaneous and thermodynamically favorable for both agricultural waste materials. Accordingly, peanut and pistachio shells were shown to be very efficient low-cost adsorbents, and a promising alternative for vanillic acid recovery from industrial wastewaters.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilConsidering the high prevalence of polyphenols in industrial effluents, as well as their potential damage to living beings, makes it a significant issue to take them out before the wastewater is discharged into water resources [1]
The present study focuses on the adsorption of vanillic acid from aqueous mediums using two agricultural wastes—pistachio and peanut shells
The effect of contact time was investigated in order to estimate the equilibrium concentration of vanillic acid for both biosorbents
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilConsidering the high prevalence of polyphenols in industrial effluents (paper, pesticide and dye production plants, gas and coke manufacturing, tanning, textile, plastic, rubber, pharmaceutical, and petroleum factories), as well as their potential damage to living beings, makes it a significant issue to take them out before the wastewater is discharged into water resources [1]. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the limit of discharge for effluents containing these compounds is less than 1 mg L−1 and for the World Health Organization regulation, 0.002 mg L−1 is the permitted limit for phenol concentration in potable water [2]. The removal of these compounds from industrial effluents is necessary; the recovery of polyphenols with important applications is appealing from an industrial and economic outlook [3]. Vanillic acid is a phenolic compound and one of the main micropollutants commonly present in agro-industrial wastewaters [4–7].
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