Investigation of Biosorption Properties of Water Hyacinth Root in Textile Effluent and Synthetic Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

Water contamination is primarily caused by effluent from the textile sector. The highly toxic and non-biodegradable nature of pollutants in the effluent makes it challenging to remove these compounds, which therefore poses harm to the environment. An effective technology, biosorption, may be a viable method for mineralizing hazardous contaminants from wastewater. Water hyacinth is one of several inexpensive adsorbents that is a fast-growing, widely accessible plant with high removal rates. A catalyst called cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide was used to activate the biosorbent. By using the central composite design of response surface methodology and the adsorbate as a synthetic wastewater, ideal conditions of significant parameters, including temperature, pH, sorbent dosage, and contact duration were obtained. The real textile effluent was subjected to the ideal conditions and adsorption efficiency of 92.88 ± 0.5% was attained. Chemical oxygen demand of the effluent was reduced by 50% after the biosorption. The attribution of functional groups in the adsorbent to different wavenumbers was made evident through the Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis, and the morphology and porous structure of the biosorbent were shown through scanning electron microscopy. In order to potentially act as an adsorbent for the biosorption of pollutants from textile effluents, surface-modified water hyacinth root powder could be employed.