Adsorção do Diclofenaco Sódico Utilizando Carvão Ativado Obtido a partir de Resíduo de Estação de Tratamento de Efluentes

Abstract

Drugs are essential compounds that help and prolong the life of living beings, but due to the lack of environmental management of effluents and waste the occurrence of them in wastewaterand sewage treatment plants (STPs) stands out, especially in large urban centers. In the last decades the development of new drugs for the treatment of health problems has expandedas great part of the population has increased the intake of different types of medication, thus tons of drugsare produced annually. The drugs after being consumed become part of the domestic sewage and these substances can still be modified. In general, the presence of these substances modifies the aquatic ecosystem and, consequently, changes the life of the biota in this environment, affecting the species that depend on this resource. Diclofenac sodium (DFC) is one of the persistent drugs found in wastewater treatment plants and is not removed by conventional treatment processes. The development of methodologies that can remove these emerging compounds present in liquid phase is important. Thus, the objective of this work was to produce and characterize an activatedcarbon obtained from solid waste from water treatment plant and evaluate its application as anadsorbent in the removal of DFC present in the liquid phase. The methodology consisted in producing the activated carbon through chemical activation and pyrolysis. The carbon was characterized through physical, chemical and morphological analysis. To evaluate the potentialuse of the material as an adsorbent, adsorption tests were performed in batch for the removal of DFC present in the liquid phase, determining the effect of the operation parameters in the percentage and capacity of removal, as well as determination of the kinetics and equilibrium isotherm. The results obtained indicated that the activated carbon produced presented specific surface area of 431.9 (m2 /g), specific mass of 2.0991 g/cm3 and pores classified as mesopores with 22.61 nm. Thermal gravimetric analyses (TGA/DTGA) presented peaks that indicated the presence of moisture and thedegradation of the carbonaceous matrix and the surface morphology analysis (SEM) showed that the material can be classifiedas homogeneous and with a rough surface. The study demonstrated the feasibility of using the produced adsorbent in the removal of DFC, with high percentages and adsorption capacity.