Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Background: Water pollution is a concern that society faces due to the presence of pollutants caused by anthropogenic activities. In the search for solutions, residual biomass has been used for the removal of these due to its easy implementation, accessibility and low cost. Objective: Therefore, in this work are evaluated two corn agricultural (stems, leaves) and two agro-industrial (cob, hod) residues in a batch system for the removal of Linear Alkyl benzene Sulfonate (LAS). Methods/ Analysis: To accomplish the objective, it was necessary to carry out a characterization of the biosorbents and an adjustment of experimental data to kinetics models and adsorption isotherms. Finding: For a sample of grey water with a concentration of 93.04ppm of LAS, results show that the corn leaves and stems have a better performance than agroindustrial residues, reaching removal values of 40 and 33 %, respectively, with a particle size of 0.355 and 1 g of adsorbent dose. In addition, the experimental data adjusted better to the kinetic model of pseudo-second order for the leaves with an R2=0.98 and to the intra particular diffusion model for the stems with an R2=0.99. Finally, the isotherm model that best adjusted the adsorption data for leaves was Freundlich with an R2=0.94 and for stems, the Langmuir model with an R2=0.91. Applications/Improvements: This research allowed concluding that both waste agricultural residues are suitable for surfactants removal from grey water as long as biomass amount and dose be set at the optimal point. 

Keywords: Adsorption, Agro-Industrial Waste, Agricultural Waste, Surfactant