Biosorption is an emerging remediation process that uses biological materials to remove toxic contaminants, such as heavy metals and pesticides, using physio-chemical mechanisms. Activated carbon fiber adsorbent materials have been widely used due to their efficiency. However, these materials are made from synthetic polymeric materials, as well as natural ones, and come with a high price tag. Agro-industrial waste such as fruit peels have been identified as potential candidates for sustainable, low cost, and biodegradable alternatives. Processing by milling, heating, functionalization, or other chemical activation has shown improvement in contaminant adsorption by increasing surface area and porosity of active sites on peels. Undergraduate research projects using different fruit peel waste have been developed for testing the adsorption capacities for copper ions and atrazine from aqueous solution. Important parameters are analyte concentration, adsorbent dose, surface area, contact time, and pH. The removal percentages of metal analytes from aqueous samples were measured by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry and flame atomic absorption spectrometry, while atrazine removal was measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Development of methods for copper and atrazine removal from aqueous solutions using fruit peel waste

2019 Spring National Meeting

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