Remediation of Emerging Pollutants in Industrial Contaminated Water using Oxytenanthera abyssinica and Bambusa vulgaris in a Treatment Media

Abstract Remediation of emerging pollutants is an aspect of environmental research with sparse information and knowledge, and the disposal of, these pollutants to the environment are mostly unregulated and on the increase. In view of this, the study examined the adsorptive capacity of adsorbent produced from Oxytenanthera abyssinica (COA 350°C KCl) and Bambusa vulgaris (CBV 350°C H3PO4) in remediating Pharmaceutical actives contaminants (PhACs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray were used in characterizing adsorbents. Derivative form of Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) and Liquid-Liquid extraction procedures were used for extracting selected PhACs and PAHs from sampled solutions respectively. Batch experiments were performed to study the adsorption capacity of adsorbents at varying contact time of 30min, 2hrs and 12hrs for PAHs and 30, 180, 360, 720 and 1440 mins for PhACs. Analysis of PhACs and PAHs concentrations for each sampling were determined by UV spectrophotometer and GC-MS respectively. The samples showed sharp absorption peaks at 3432 and 1632 cm−1 indicating O-H stretched and N-H stretched. The adsorbents showed both open and close pores. Carbon, Oxygen and Nitrogen in the adsorbent for CBV were 62.00, 33.53 and 3.98 and COA were 71.00, 22.80 weight percent, respectively. The adsorbents had good surface areas, pore volumes and pore sizes. Removal efficiency of COA showed the highest efficiency for PhACs removal at (73.3%, 78.1% and 86.2%) while CBV (63.9 %, 66.7% and 82.2%) for paracetamol, salbutamol and chlorpheniramine, respectively. CBV and COA ranged from 42.5-81.2% and 8.9-65.5% for PAHs removal respectively. The experimental result showed that adsorbents made from Oxytenanthera abyssinaca and Bambusa vulgaris can efficiently adsorb selected PhACs and PAHs in industrial Contaminated Water.