Publication

Abstract : pWith increasing population and associated consumption of materials, new contaminants are detected in water whose sources are worldwide and are categorized as emerging contaminants. Conventional treatment setups fail to remove these diversified compounds, as they were not designed to remove the same. In this scenario, different materials were tried to remove these contaminants as adsorbent and catalyst. In this study, rice husk ash (RHA) was used as adsorbent in batch study to remove selected contaminants. The contaminants chosen were Acid Orange 7, Amoxicillin, Metformin and Carbamazepine. In addition, established nanomaterial TiO2 was used both as adsorbent and catalyst in advanced oxidation process (AOP) to compare efficiency of removal by RHA againstTiO2. AOP experiments were performed with the aid of central composite design and the parameters varied include reaction time, initial dye concentration, adsorbent dosage and pH levels. Colorimeter and HPLC were carried out to find the concentration of dye and pharmaceuticals respectively. Comparison revealed that adsorption with RHA is an economically feasible option while TiO2 as catalyst in AOP, although expensive had better removal efficiency for dye. RHA proved to be an effective absorbent for pharmaceuticals also. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd./p