The Removal of Ibuprofen Drugs Residues from Municipal Wastewater by Moringa Oleifera Seeds

Abstract

Municipal wastewater may contain residues of different drugs causing severe chemical contamination of water‎bodies. However, the microbial degradation of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) may not eliminate such‎drug residues completely. The current work was designed to remove the Ibuprofen drug residues by using the Moringa‎Oleifera seeds. Various testing methods such as Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET), Transmission Electron‎Microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were‎applied to assess the efficiency of such plant seeds in bioremoval of ibuprofen residues from municipal wastewater‎The batch reactor was used to find the optimum operating conditions using various parameters with different‎pH values, duration time, Ibuprofen concentration and various quantities of plant seeds. In the batch reactor, the‎operation conditions were: pH 7, duration time 150 min, Ibuprofen dose of 1000 mg/l, activated adsorbents and‎Moringa Oleifera seeds in the amount of 1000 mg/l. Moreover, the packed bed reactor was used to examine different‎parameters such as initial Ibuprofen concentration, flow rate and bed depth for 6 hours. It was found that the‎best conditions were 2 cm depth, and 25 l/hr flow rate. Meanwhile, the kinetic constants were studied by adsorption‎equilibrium with the isothermal Langmuir and Freundlich models. The best results were shown with the Freundlich‎isotherm, and the first pseudo order was more suitable for the removal of Ibuprofen by adsorbed activation‎of Moringa Oleifera seeds.