Removal of Ranitidine from Pharmaceutical Waste Water Using Activated Carbon (AC) Prepared from Waste Lemon Peel

Abstract

In the present study, a novel, environment-friendly and low-cost adsorbents were developed to examine the removal of some pharmaceutical drug from wastewater bodies. Over these days, pharmaceutical wastes are becoming one of the major pollutants causing waterborne diseases and drastically changing the aquatic ecological cycle. In this study, a low-cost green activated carbon (AC) was prepared for the treatment of ranitidine from its aqueous solution. This novel carbon was prepared by carbonization and activation of waste sweet lemon peel collected from the local fruit market. Batch study was performed optimizing several process parameters like adsorbent dose, temperature, solution pH, initial drug concentration and agitation speed and finding the maximum percentage removal of the drugs with the help of UV spectrophotometer for each case. The characterization of the adsorbent was studied with the help of SEM and FTIR study. The experimental data obtained were analysed using several reaction kinetics which revealed the best-fitted data. The spontaneity of the reaction was examined with the thermodynamics study. The processes studied also stated the successful development of some low-cost technique for removal of pharmaceutical wastes.