A new biosorbent with controlled grain (I). Efficient elimination of cationic dyes from textile dyeing wastewater

Abstract

Environmental care is an increasing concern in our society, and therefore integrated, circular economy allowing to close the industrial cycle is an urging demand. This project employs a residue of the food industry to recover the wastewaters from the textile industry, allowing closing the loop in two different industrial processes. Orange peel is a very abundant residue in the food industry. By chemical modification of the orange peel, we aim to produce a biosorbent to be employed in the treatment of the textile industry wastewater containing cationic dyes. In this project, we evaluate the capacity of the treated orange peels as cationic interchanger with different dissolutions of copper (II). Finally, their capacities as biosorbents were evaluated with four cationic dyes, examining the influence of different parameters like: biosorbent concentration, contact time, temperature and pH of the medium. An adsorption between 51 and 92 % was reached with the first treatment and also the possibility of the biosorbent recovery