Treatment of acetaminophen and acetylsalicylic acid by chicken bone based adsorbent

Abstract

The presence of trace amounts of pharmaceutical waste in the environment has become a concern among the environmental community and scientist. Paracetamol (acetaminophen, ACT) and aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid, ASA) are the most common pharmaceutical waste that have been detected in wastewater and surface water throughout the world. In recent years, researchers have begun to explore the potential of organic waste as an adsorbent in adsorption process to remove the pollutant from wastewater. In this study, activated carbon derived from chicken bone waste was synthesized and characterized to compare with present organic waste adsorbent. The prepared adsorbent; bone char and activated carbon, were used to remove ACT and ASA from aqueous solution. Finally, the effectiveness of the adsorbent prepared to remove ACT and ASA was studied. The chicken bone was collected from a food stall, dried and heated up to 500 ºC in the furnace prior to being activated by phosphoric acid. The surface properties of adsorbents were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer, scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. The adsorption process was carried out in batch mode affected by different parameters; contact time (60-300 minutes), dosage (0.05-0.2 g), pH (2-11), initial concentration (1,000-5,000 mg/L) and temperature (25-70 ºC). The highest removal percentage was ACT (94.7 %) followed by ASA (92.78 %). Both pharmaceuticals waste were efficiently removed using activated carbon chicken bone compared to bone char. The experimental isotherm and kinetic data were evaluated using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models and pseudofirst- order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion kinetics models. The experimental data obey the Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. In a thermodynamic study, the adsorption of ACT occurred spontaneously with the exothermic reaction while the adsorption of ASA occurred with the endothermic reaction. The high percentage removal of ACT (94.7 %) and ASA (92.78 %) using chicken bone based on activated carbon confirmed that chicken bone can be potentially used as an alternative adsorbent for pharmaceutical waste ACT and ASA.