Decontamination of Wastewater Using Activated Biochar from Agricultural Waste: A Practical Experiment for Environmental Sciences Students

• José Carlos Arrebola ^[1] ; Nuria Rodríguez-Fernández, and ^[1] ; Álvaro Caballero ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Córdoba

     Universidad de Córdoba

     Cordoba, España

     
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 97, Nº 11, 2020, págs. 4137-4144
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Safe and high-quality water is essential from both the health and environmental perspectives. Water quality is so important that the United Nations has included water in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thus, the adequate control and treatment of water are necessities. These tasks must be performed by a wide variety of professionals, including chemists, technicians, environmental scientists, .... Regarding the last group, one competency that they must develop throughout their university training is the ability to implement an environmental management system. Regarding water management, in addition to its well-known positive effect on the environment, wastewater treatment allows for the acquisition of water that is suitable for human consumption and use in agriculture. The relevant wastewater treatments are not complex, but they involve the participation of practitioners of several areas of study including engineering, chemistry, microbiology, .... This paper describes a laboratory exercise for students seeking university degrees in environmental sciences that aims to instruct them about wastewater treatment. Specifically, the experiment involves the decontamination of water polluted with the common textile dye methylene blue. The experiment is performed with different samples of activated carbon of agricultural origin (sustainable), and the results are compared with those obtained vs a carbon of petrochemical origin. The characterization of the decontamination process is performed via spectrophotometric measurements of the presence of methylene blue. The results obtained following the use of different quantities of adsorbent material are also compared.