Treatment of wastewater from sugarcane using entrapped activated carbon

Abstract

In this work, entrapped activated carbon was mixed with wastewater from sugarcane using different liquid/solid ratio, pH, and time of operation. Experiments were run in Erlenmeyer flasks at room temperature and 100 rpm. Color reduction of wastewater was evaluated by the decrease in the absorbance at 420, 520, and 620 nm. Best results were achieved using a liquid/adsorbent ratio 0.5:1 (measured as volume of wastewater from sugarcane/volume of entrapped activated carbon), at pH = 6.5–7, and 2 hours of treatment. Under these conditions, about 90% of dye compounds were removed from the sugarcane wastewater. Moreover, results were compared with those achieved in previous works where entrapped carbon was used to remove dyes from vinasses coming from winery industry, observing that entrapped activated carbon is effective to remove dyes independently from the industrial wastewater. Consequently, the results obtained in this study verify the potential application of entrapped activated carbon beads in the design of new eco-friendly, efficient, and low-cost adsorbents for the treatment of wastewater.