Journal
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
Volume 200, Issue -, Pages 673-680Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2012.06.116
Keywords
Hydrothermally produced biochar; Hydrogen peroxide; Filtration; Metal/risk element
Categories
Funding
- NSF [CBET-1054405]
- USDA [58-3148-1-179, T-STAR-2009-34135-20192]
- Florida Peanut Check-off program
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys [1054405] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Biochar converted from agricultural residues can be used as an alternative adsorbent for removal of aqueous heavy metals. In this work, experimental and modeling investigations were conducted to examine the effect of H2O2 treatment on hydrothermally produced biochar (hydrochar) from peanut hull to remove aqueous heavy metals. Characterization measurements showed that H2O2 modification increased the oxygen-containing functional groups, particularly carboxyl groups, on the hydrochar surfaces. As a result, the modified hydrochar showed enhanced lead sorption ability with a sorption capacity of 22.82 mg g(-1), which was comparable to that of commercial activated carbon and was more than 20 times of that of untreated hydrochar (0.88 mg g(-1)). When used as filter media in a packed column, the modified hydrochar was also much more effective in filtering lead than the unmodified one. The lead removal capacity of the modified hydrochar packed column was about 20 times of that containing untreated hydrochar. In a multi-metal system, the modified hydrochar column still effectively removed lead, as well as other heavy metals (i.e., Cu2+, Ni2+, and Cd2+) from water flow. Model results indicated that the heavy metal removal ability of the modified hydrochar follows the order of Pb2+ > Cu2+ > Cd2+ > Ni2+. Findings from this work suggest that H2O2-modified hydrochar may be an effective, less costly, and environmentally sustainable adsorbent for many environmental applications, particularly with respect to metal immobilization. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available