Surface activation of elderberry, gooseberry and paprika residues with acetic acid to improve quality of biosorption processes of cu(Ii), cd(ii) and fe(iii)

Abstract

The residues of elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.), gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa L.) and paprika (Capsicum annuum L.) generated during food processing were modified with acetic acid to show the effect on the bioremoval process efficiency of Cu(II), Cd(II) and Fe(III) ions from aqueous solutions. The biomaterials were characterized using several methods, including particle size distribution, SEM-EDS, BET, BJH, morphology (SEM), FT-IR. Based on the kinetics analysis the pseudo second-order kinetic model fit better in relation to the research results. The bioremoval processes followed well the Langmuir isotherms model with high correlation coefficients. This study showed that the chemical modification of the tested materials had a positive impact on improving the efficiency of the biosorption processes. Modified biowaste can be used as effective and environmentally friendly sorbents to remove heavy metal ions from wastewater to improve water quality.