Valorization of agricultural olive waste as an activated carbon adsorbent for the remediation of water sources contaminated with pharmaceuticals

Abstract

The present study investigates the performance of activated carbon from olive pomace (ACOP) in the removal of hydrophilic organic pharmaceutical micropollutants such as the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) from water. The adsorption behavior of two chemically modified ACOP was investigated considering their interesting textural properties, relevant surface functions and charges. The performances in terms of adsorption capacity were investigated and optimized with respect to the main operating conditions. Comparison of SMX adsorption capacities on ACOP with commercial powdered activated carbon and nanoporous carbonaceous materials prepared from argan shells revealed that ACOP enabled the highest adsorption capacities (39.68 mg g-1). The adsorption behavior was attributed not only to the textural properties, such as the large surface area (1857 m2 g-1) and porosity, but also to the charge and functional groups of the surface.