Kinetic, Mechanistic, Equilibrium and Thermodynamic Studies for the Adsorption of Paracetamol on Agricultural based Adsorbents and Nanometal Oxides

Abstract

There is a global consensus on waste water treatment which is a cause of major concern. A common drug released by pharmaceutical units is paracetamol, it causes hepatitis, nausea and abdominal pain. The present project is an attempt to explore efficient and cost effective adsorbents, the adsorption potential of agricultural based adsorbents and nanometal oxides for paracetamol from aqueous solution has been studied. Analyses of data from experiments at varying parameters affecting adsorption, show that Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models are obeyed and the process follows pseudo-second-order kinetics in all the cases. A possible mechanism has been proposed. Thermodynamic studies suggest endothermic and spontaneous nature of adsorption. Continuous flow column studies, using sequential bed as well as vertical bed columns, show that breakthrough time and the time for saturation of columns decreases with increase in feed concentration and flow rate. Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models fit well to the experimental data and efficiency of   sequential bed column is better than that of vertical column.