Ecofriendly adsorbent sugarcane bagasse biochar beads for tetracycline removal: From batch adsorption to packed-bed performance and sustainability index evaluation
- 1Department of Chemical Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, 603 202, India
- 2Department of Chemical Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, 603 202, India; Corresponding author.
- 3Department of Chemical Engineering, Harcourt Butler Technical University, Nawabganj, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 208 002, India
Abstract
The increasing prevalence of industrial wastewater, particularly from pharmaceutical companies, poses significant environmental challenges. This study focuses on the removal of specific pharmaceutical compound tetracycline hydrochloride (THC), using sugarcane biochar beads (BCB). THC, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, is the target for removal in this study, aiming for a sustainable solution. BCB were developed as a recoverable material for the removal of THC from batch to continuous treatment in a fixed-bed system. Under optimum batch conditions, BCB was capable of 85% THC removal, which corresponds to an adsorption capacity of 3.43 mg g⁻¹ . The Freundlich isotherm and fractional power kinetic model were best suited to describe the equilibrium and kinetic data, respectively, and thermodynamic analysis showed that the adsorption was both spontaneous and exothermic. Breakthrough experiments were carried out in the continuous fixed-bed units, and the results were obtained for three variables of interest: flow rate, influent THC concentration and bed height. The batch-to-fixed-bed capacity ratio (1.23–1.55) further validated the relationship between the equilibrium uptake and dynamic column performance. BCB also showed regeneration potential and an Adsorbent Sustainability Index (ADSUS) of 0.85 was excellent sustainability. The integrated evaluation of the waste derived immobilized biochar by batch adsorption, continuous fixed-bed treatment, regeneration, scale-up and sustainability assessment constitutes the main innovation of this work.
Related
- A decade of air-pollution sustainability performance across OECD countries: A weight-stability-benchmarked long-term MCDM evaluation
- Adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline using carbon quantum dot-CuBTC nanocomposites: isotherm, kinetics, and mechanistic studies.
- Bioinspired Synthesis of Propolis-Capped Silver Nanoparticles for Rapid Azo Dye Adsorption: Experimental Performance, Thermodynamic Evaluation, Regeneration, and Computational Insights
- Adsorption and catalytic degradation of tetracycline by modified biochar in water : A review
- Interpretable machine learning and greenness assessment for sustainable tetracycline adsorption and phytotoxicity mitigation using almond peel – derived activated carbon
BibTeX
@article{jacob2026ecofriendly,
title = {{Ecofriendly adsorbent sugarcane bagasse biochar beads for tetracycline removal: From batch adsorption to packed-bed performance and sustainability index evaluation}},
author = {Meenu Mariam Jacob and Muthamilselvi Ponnuchamy and Gopika L. and Anjali Awasthi and Ashish Kapoor},
journal = {Next Sustainability},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.nxsust.2026.100567},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nxsust.2026.100567},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Ecofriendly adsorbent sugarcane bagasse biochar beads for tetracycline removal: From batch adsorption to packed-bed performance and sustainability index evaluation
AU - Meenu Mariam Jacob
AU - Muthamilselvi Ponnuchamy
AU - Gopika L.
AU - Anjali Awasthi
AU - Ashish Kapoor
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Next Sustainability
DO - 10.1016/j.nxsust.2026.100567
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nxsust.2026.100567
AB - The increasing prevalence of industrial wastewater, particularly from pharmaceutical companies, poses significant environmental challenges. This study focuses on the removal of specific pharmaceutical compound tetracycline hydrochloride (THC), using sugarcane biochar beads (BCB). THC, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, is the target for removal in this study, aiming for a sustainable solution. BCB were developed as a recoverable material for the removal of THC from batch to continuous treatment in a fixed-bed system. Under optimum batch conditions, BCB was capable of 85% THC removal, which corresponds to an adsorption capacity of 3.43 mg g⁻¹ . The Freundlich isotherm and fractional power kinetic model were best suited to describe the equilibrium and kinetic data, respectively, and thermodynamic analysis showed that the adsorption was both spontaneous and exothermic. Breakthrough experiments were carried out in the continuous fixed-bed units, and the results were obtained for three variables of interest: flow rate, influent THC concentration and bed height. The batch-to-fixed-bed capacity ratio (1.23–1.55) further validated the relationship between the equilibrium uptake and dynamic column performance. BCB also showed regeneration potential and an Adsorbent Sustainability Index (ADSUS) of 0.85 was excellent sustainability. The integrated evaluation of the waste derived immobilized biochar by batch adsorption, continuous fixed-bed treatment, regeneration, scale-up and sustainability assessment constitutes the main innovation of this work.
SN - 2949-8236
ER -