Biochar Production from Domestic Sludge: A Cost-effective, Recycled Product for Removal of Amoxicillin in Wastewater

摘要

Due to the broad spectrum, antimicrobial activity, Amoxicillin is one of the extensively usedantibiotics. Amoxicillin ends up in the wastewater stream by direct or indirect disposal pathwayswhich ultimately affect the aquatic ecosystem. Conventional wastewater treatment plant cannot remove it completely.Hence our objective was to produce sludge derived biochar and use it as an adsorbent for removal of amoxicillin. Effective biochar was obtained at 300 C produced from the sludge of thedomesticwastewater treatment plant. 100 ppm amoxicillin solution spiked in biochar was kept for 180 mins in an orbital shaker and every 30 minutes the filtrate was checked in UV spectrophotometer. A steady decreasing gradient was obtained for absorbance of amoxicillin after 30 minutes. Further scanning electron microscopy showed significant morphological change in biochar obtained before and after spiking amoxicillin. Our preliminary assessment suggests that biochar can be exploited as an effective treatment technique to remove amoxicillin from wastewater. Moreover,we suggest that utilization of domestic sludge for commercial application in treatment plants can reduce the load of domestic waste in the open dumpsites.