Abstract
A char (GC) obtained from the co-gasification of rice husk and polyethylene was used in a fixed-bed column with continuous flow for Cr(III) removal assays from synthetic and industrial wastewaters. For comparison purposes, a commercial activated carbon (CAC) was also used. The best experimental conditions in the continuous removal assays were the following ones: Cr(III) inflow concentration = 5 mg L−1, feed flow rate = 3 mL min−1, mass of adsorbent in the column = 0.8 g, and inflow temperature = 50 °C. Under these conditions, the highest uptake capacities were 1.60 and 2.14 mg g−1 in the synthetic solution, and 3.25 and 7.83 mg g−1 in the industrial wastewater, for GC and CAC, respectively. These results are different from those obtained under batch conditions in which GC performed better than CAC. Cr(III) removal by both adsorbents occurred due to precipitation, but CAC presented a slightly higher amount of Cr(III) removed due to its highest porosity. The regeneration of GC and CAC was also studied, but both adsorbents showed no capacity to be used in more than one cycle. This study highlighted the importance of studying Cr(III) removal under continuous conditions, as the removal mechanisms may be completely different from the batch assays, affecting the adsorbents’ performance.
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Funding
This research was funded by FEDER through the Operational Program for Competitive Factors of COMPETE and by Portuguese funds through FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) through the project PTDC/AAG-REC/3477/2012—RICEVALOR “Energetic valorisation of wastes obtained during rice production in Portugal”, FCOMP-01–0124-FEDER-027827, a project sponsored by FCT/MTCES, QREN, COMPETE and FEDER. Also, this work was supported by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry—LAQV which is financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES (UIDB/50006/2020). The authors also acknowledge the Foundation for Science and Technology for funding Diogo Dias’s PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/101751/2014).
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DD contributed to methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, and writing—original draft; MB performed conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition; FP contributed to conceptualization, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition; IF performed conceptualization, resources, writing—review and editing, project administration, and funding acquisition; NL contributed to conceptualization, methodology, resources, validation, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.
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Dias, D., Bernardo, M., Pinto, F. et al. Cr(III) dynamic removal in a fixed-bed column by using a co-gasification char. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19, 8145–8158 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03690-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03690-8