Removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from aqueous solution by raw and modified plant residue materials as biosorbents

Removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), e.g., naphthalene, acenaphthene, phenanthrene and pyrene, from aqueous solution by raw and modified plant residues was investigated to develop low cost biosorbents for organic pollutant abatement. Bamboo wood, pine wood, pine needles and pine bark were selected as plant residues, and acid hydrolysis was used as an easily modification method. The raw and modified biosorbents were characterized by elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The sorption isotherms of PAHs to raw biosorbents were apparently linear, and were dominated by a partitioning process. In comparison, the isotherms of the hydrolyzed biosorbents displayed nonlinearity, which was controlled by partitioning and the specific interaction mechanism. The sorption kinetic curves of PAHs to the raw and modified plant residues fit well with the pseudo second-order kinetics model. The sorption rates were faster for the raw biosorbents than the corresponding hydrolyzed biosorbents, which was attributed to the latter having more condensed domains (i.e., exposed aromatic core). By the consumption of the amorphous cellulose component under acid hydrolysis, the sorption capability of the hydrolyzed biosorbents was notably enhanced, i.e., 6-18 fold for phenanthrene, 6-8 fold for naphthalene and pyrene and 5-8 fold for acenaphthene. The sorption coefficients (K-d) were negatively correlated with the polarity index [(O+N)/C], and positively correlated with the aromaticity of the biosorbents. For a given biosorbent, a positive linear correlation between logK(oc) and logK(ow) for different PAHs was observed. Interestingly, the linear plots of logK(oc)-logK(ow) were parallel for different biosorbents. These observations suggest that the raw and modified plant residues have great potential as biosorbents to remove PAHs from wastewater.