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Microwave-assisted torrefaction of biomass Kappaphycus alvarezii–based biochar and magnetic biochar for removal of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] from aqueous solution

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Abstract

The present study investigates the isotherm and kinetics of aqueous hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] removal using biochar (Ka-BC) and magnetic biochar (Ka-MBC) derived from seaweed biomass, Kappaphycus alvarezii. Characteristics of prepared Ka-BC and Ka-MBC were explored by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDAX, and surface area analysis. The effects of initial pH, contact time, and chromium concentration were investigated based on batch adsorption experiments. The maximum chromium adsorption was 64.8% and 82.5% using Ka-BC and Ka-MBC, respectively, corresponding to 500 mg/L loading at pH 3 with initial chromium concentration of 1 mg/L after 150 min of sorption reaction. The removal of chromium is mainly dependent on pH and follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption experiments showed that Ka-MBC has better removal capacity than the Ka-BC due to multi-layer mechanism and surface roughness phenomenon in Ka-MBC. The chromium adsorption on Ka-MBC followed Langmuir isotherm. The current study demonstrates the utilization of seaweed-derived magnetic biochar composite as an efficient sorbent and low-cost alternative for the removal of Cr(VI) from the environment.

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Acknowledgements

The author KG thanks to management of Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai for their constant support in research activities.

Funding

The author KG thanks the DST-FIST (SR/FST/ESI-145/2016), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi for the infrastructure support to carry out this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ocean Research (DST-FIST Sponsored Centre), Sathyabama Institute of Science Technology, Chennai, 600119, India

    Kasivelu Govindaraju & Raguraman Vasantharaja

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering and National Center for Combustion Research and Development, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    Ravikrishnan Vinu & Ribhu Gautam

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Sathyabama Institute of Science Technology, Chennai, 600119, India

    Meiyyappan Niranjan & Indhirajith Sundar

Authors
  1. Kasivelu Govindaraju
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  2. Ravikrishnan Vinu
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  3. Ribhu Gautam
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  4. Raguraman Vasantharaja
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  5. Meiyyappan Niranjan
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  6. Indhirajith Sundar
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Contributions

Conceptualization, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Resources and Supervision—Kasivelu Govindaraju; Resources, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing-review and editing—Ravikrishnan Vinu; Methodology and formal analysis—Ribhu Gautam; Formal analysis and Writing-review and editing—Raguraman Vasantharaja; Investigation and Formal analysis—Meiyyappan Niranjan; Investigation and Formal analysis—Indhirajith Sundar.

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Correspondence to Kasivelu Govindaraju or Ravikrishnan Vinu.

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Govindaraju, K., Vinu, R., Gautam, R. et al. Microwave-assisted torrefaction of biomass Kappaphycus alvarezii–based biochar and magnetic biochar for removal of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] from aqueous solution. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 3643–3653 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02512-2

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