Chloramphenicol and Methylene Blue Adsorption by Modestly Treated Paper Sewage Sludge Based Activated Carbon

Abstract

Abstract Refractory and emerging contaminants have superfluously present in most Malaysia water bodies due to increasing trend of modern industrialized activities including textiles and pharmaceutical industries. These have impacted deleteriously on our environment and water systems. Hence, this study proposed a sustainable treatment method by using activated carbon prepared from freely available paper mills sewage sludge for removing chloramphenicol (CAP) drug and methylene blue (MB) dye. To the best of our knowledge, very limited study has been reported on this emerging chloramphenicol. Modest treatment of low-temperature carbonization assisted with short-activation time of microwave radiation had been used. Analysis of variance of central composite design (CCD) had resulted optimum conditions of 440W radiation power and 3 min activation time for optimum removals of 69.5% and 50.5% for CAP and MB dye, respectively. The surface area of paper mill sewage sludge activated carbon (PMSSAC) had dramatically improved from 1.14 to 412 m2/g. The SEM image had proven the effectiveness of microwave radiation treatment where more cavities and pores were observed on activated carbon for better adsorbate penetration. The Freundlich isotherm and Pseudo-second order appeared to best fit the kinetic data. Furthermore, high affinity of adsorbate towards the PMSSAC surface could be the plausible mechanism indicated by high amount of adsorption within initial stage of time. The high performance in CAP and MB removal by our PMSSAC system is promisingly anticipated to be good activated carbon treatment method for real application in industrialized wastewater system.