Development of mesoporous adsorbents for antibiotic removal by column adsorption

• Grant number: 19/22127-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: February 01, 2020 - January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Technology
• Principal Investigator: Romilda Fernandez Felisbino
• Grantee: Romilda Fernandez Felisbino
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Sarah Isabel Pinto Monteiro Do Nascimento Alves ; Tiago Dias Martins

Abstract

Currently research shows that approximately two thirds of rivers worldwide are contaminated with antibiotics. These are the pharmaceuticals most commonly used in humans and animals in the treatment or prevention of infectious diseases caused by bacteria in the human or animal body. The present water treatment supply does not deal with the elimination of antibiotics and other drugs, which are not yet addressed in the standard limits of potability. In this sense, part of the drugs, after treatment, returns to the source of water supply to the population making microorganisms resistant to treatment. There are several possible methods that can be applied for the removal of antibiotics from water such as biological treatment, photocatalysis, ozonation, Fenton process and the adsorption process. These technologies have advantages and disadvantages; however the adsorption process is an efficient, practical and less expensive technology when compared to the others for the removal of low pollutant concentrations. A new class of adsorbents, mesoporous materials MCM-41 and SBA-15 has a strong application potential for antibiotic adsorption because of its large specific surface area, high porosity, and regular pore size distribution. This work aims to investigate the mechanism of antibiotic adsorption in mesoporous materials, MCM-41, Al-MCM-41 and SBA-15, for potential use in the removal of wastewater antibiotics in fixed-bed column. The adsorption of antibiotics will be performed first in batch to investigate the effect of contact time and, the determination of adsorption isotherms, thermodynamic and kinetic parameters and the desorption capacity. The breakthrough curves obtained in the fixed-bed column system will be modeled using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), considering the experimental isotherm and diffusion coefficient data. (AU)