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Optimisation of Adsorption Removal of Bisphenol A Using Sludge-Based Activated Carbons: Application of Response Surface Methodology with a Box–Behnken Design

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Abstract

The potential use of sewage sludge as a precursor for the production of activated carbon was explored in this paper. After chemical activation with ZnCl2, three activated carbons were used to decontaminate synthetic solutions containing Bisphenol A and the results were compared with a commercial activated carbon. The effect of the impregnation ratio (activating agent/precursor) and the use of CO2 during the second carbonisation on the textural properties and Bisphenol A adsorption performance of the activated carbons were studied. The highest specific surface area achieved was 730 m2/g, obtained with an impregnation ratio of 2:1 with the use of CO2.The kinetics of Bisphenol A adsorption were successfully described by both pseudo-second-order and Elovich models, while the adsorption isotherms were well fitted to the Freundlich model. The prepared activated carbon had excellent adsorption efficiency toward Bisphenol A with a maximum adsorption of 285.8 mg/g which was closer to the retention amount of the commercial one. The best adsorption conditions for Bisphenol A removal were obtained by applying response surface methodology (RSM) coupled with Box-Behnken design (BBD) onto AC-Industrial2. Under these conditions, 657.76 mg/g can be reached. Thus, these optimum conditions were therefore applied for bisphenol A removal from real effluents and the obtained results are very promising.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Comunidad de Madrid through the Industrial PhD Projects (under Grant Numbers IND2017/AMB-7720 and IND2019/AMB-17114) and REMTAVARES-CM Network (under Grant Number S2018/EMT-4341) and The European Social Fund. Also, the authors thank the project PID 2020-116478RB-I00 supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and gratefully acknowledge the financial support furnished by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Laboratoire de Chimie des Matériaux et Catalyse LR01ES08, Université de Tunis El Manar, 2092, Tunis, Tunisia

    Mabrouka Ounis, Fatma Fakhfakh & Mohamed Kadri Younes

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, IMSIU, 11432, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Bilel Hadrich

  3. Catalysis and Separation Processes Group (CyPS), Chemical Engineering and Materials Department, Faculty of Chemistry Sciences, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain

    Eva Sanz-Santos, Silvia Álvarez-Torrellas, Marcos Larriba & Juan García

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  1. Mabrouka Ounis
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MO helped in writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, conceptualization, validation, investigation, methodology, formal analysis and software. ES-S was involved in writing—review and editing, conceptualization, investigation, formal analysis and software. FF, SÁ-T and MKY contributed to writing—review and editing, conceptualization, methodology and supervision. BH performed writing—review and editing, conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis and software. ML helped in writing—review and editing. JG was involved in resources, project administration, funding acquisition and validation.

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Correspondence to Mabrouka Ounis.

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Ounis, M., Sanz-Santos, E., Fakhfakh, F. et al. Optimisation of Adsorption Removal of Bisphenol A Using Sludge-Based Activated Carbons: Application of Response Surface Methodology with a Box–Behnken Design. Arab J Sci Eng 49, 497–514 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-023-08203-y

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