Thermal treated sugarcane bagasse for acetylsalicylic acid removal: dynamic and equilibrium studies, cycles of reuse and mechanisms

ABSTRACT

Sugarcane bagasse, an abundant residue from ethanol and sugar industry, was used in its natural form (SB) and carbonised (CS) as adsorbent for removing acetylsalicylic acid from aqueous solutions. The surface area, porosity, functional groups and surface charges of the adsorbents were characterised by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and Barret–Joyner–Halenda methods, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and point of zero charge. Analysis indicated that C- and O-containing functional groups may be involved in the adsorption process. Batch experiments were also performed to evaluate the effects of pH, temperature and time on the sorption. The materials exhibited high adsorption efficiency at low pH. Results revealed that the pseudo-first-order kinetic model and pseudo-second-order provided the best fitting to the experimental data for biosorbent SB and biochar CS, respectively. Liu isotherm model describes the adsorption equilibrium for biochar suggesting that the carbonised surface had a heterogeneous nature with Q_max of 32.73 mg g⁻¹ at 298 K. Besides, intraparticle diffusion model suggests that adsorption of ASA onto activated carbon was controlled by multiple steps. This study demonstrated that carbonised sugarcane bagasse is a potential adsorbent for removing acetylsalicylic acid from aqueous solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Aspirin
• pharmaceutical
• agricultural waste
• adsorption
• carbonization
• reusability

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the support of the Brazilian funding agencies Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) [Finance Code 001] and National Council for Scientific and Technological (CNPq); MSc. Joziane Gimenes Meneguin (on behalf of Laboratório de Adsorção e Troca Iônica - LATI-UEM) for providing the textural analyses; Alexandre José Gonçalves (on behalf of Centro Multiusuário de Caracterização de Materiais – CMCM-UTFPR) for providing the SEM analyses; and Rúbia Camila Ronqui Bottini (on behalf of Laboratório Multiusuário de Análises Químicas – LAMAQ-UTFPR) for providing the FTIR analyses.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Investigation and writing of the original draft were performed by Nayara Cristina Romano; Data curation and writing (Review & Editing) were done by Liziê Daniela Tentler Prola; Methodology and Validation were performed by Fernando Hermes Passig; Formal analysis and Visualisation were conducted by Flavio Bentes Freire; Investigation and Formal analysis were done by Regiane Cristina Ferreira; Conceptualisation, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Funding acquisition, and Writing – Review & Editing were performed by Marcus Vinicius de Liz and Karina Querne de Carvalho. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript, and read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2022.2130283

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the support of the Brazilian funding agency Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) [Finance Code 001].