The continuous release of chemical substances like endocrine disruptor bisphenol-A (BPA) can cause harmful health and environmental effects in humans, wildlife and aquatic organisms. This study demonstrates the use of raw and biochar (treated) banana peel adsorbents for the elimination of bisphenol-A in a batch process. The sorption data revealed that optimum adsorption was attained at a pH of 8.0, initial BPA concentration of 240 mg/L, dosage of 0.4 g, and contact time of 200 min and 150 min for raw and treated sample, respectively. From the kinetic study, the pseudo-second-order model (PSOM) best describes treated peels data, indicating chemisorption mechanism, while pseudo-first-order model (PFOM) best explained the kinetic data for the raw sample pointing to physisorption mechanism. The Langmuir model best described the raw banana peel with maximum monolayer adsorption capacities (Qmax) of 91.3 mg/g and 135.2 mg/g for the raw and treated sample, while Freundlich model confirmed the adsorption of the BPA by the treated sample to be heterogeneity surface. The thermodynamic characteristics indicate that for the raw banana peel, showed the values of ΔH obtained is 17.42 kJ/mol, while for the treated peel, the value is much higher at 45.01 kJ/mol indicating spontaneous and endothermic process for both adsorbents. These findings highlight the potential of banana peels and its biochar derivative as a sustainable and effective adsorbent in the removal of BPA from wastewater.
Din et al. (Wed,) studied this question.