Adsorption based techniques for simultaneous removal of multi-pollutant from wastewaters using silane modified fibres from sugarcane bagasse

Despite many reported purification methods, water pollution yet remains a serious problem. Most reported techniques are only effective at removing one pollutant at a time, making them inadequate for treating real-environment wastewater which typically contains multiple pollutants. This study aimed on the development of biosorbent materials capable of simultaneous removal of various pollutants from aqueous effluents. To achieve this, sugarcane bagasse fibres (SBF) were extracted and chemically modified through silanization using (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APS) to enhance their adsorption properties. Characterization of silanized fibres (SBFAPS) have shown improved properties suitable for pollutants adsorption including potential functional groups, surface area and pore size. Adsorption performance in a fixed bed method at initial concentration of ≤ 5 ppm, pH of 6.5, flow rate of 2.5 mL/min and biosorbent mass of 1.0 g, has shown that SBFAPS had significantly higher multi-pollutant adsorption performance: 92.8 ± 3.8% Pb(II), 83.8 ± 5.6% Cr(III), 60.5 ± 3.2% Cd(II), 45.9 ± 5.3% Co(II), 79.1 ± 5.1% crystal violet, 73.6 ± 4.7% methyl orange and 63.4 ± 3.9% ciprofloxacin, while in SBF: 73.9 ± 4.4% Pb(II), 62.6 ± 4.8% Cr(III), 33.0 ± 3.6% Cd(II), 16.9 ± 4.2% Co(II), 84.6 ± 5.9% crystal violet, 60.1 ± 2.8% methyl orange and 76.3 ± 5.2% ciprofloxacin. The findings show that SBFAPS proves to be an effective biosorbent for removing multiple pollutants simultaneously from wastewater using a fixed bed adsorption technique, offering high efficiency and practical application potential with influence by pH, initial pollutant concentration, flow rate, and bed height.