Straw-derived biochar for the removal of antibiotics from water: Adsorption and degradation mechanisms, recent advancements and challenges

Xiuxiu Zhang; Tansuhree Bhattacharya; Chongqing Wang; Abhishek Kumar; Puthiya Veetil Nidheesh

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.116998

Straw-derived biochar for the removal of antibiotics from water: Adsorption and degradation mechanisms, recent advancements and challenges

Environ Res. 2023 Nov 15;237(Pt 2):116998. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116998. Epub 2023 Aug 25.

Authors

Xiuxiu Zhang¹, Tansuhree Bhattacharya², Chongqing Wang³, Abhishek Kumar², Puthiya Veetil Nidheesh⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 835215, India.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China. Electronic address: zilangwang@126.com.
⁴ Environmental Impact and Sustainability Division, CSIR - National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. Electronic address: nidheeshpv129@gmail.com.

PMID: 37634688
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116998

Abstract

Antibiotics, a kind of containments with the properties of widely distributed and difficult to degrade, has aroused extensive attention in the world. As a prevalent agricultural waste, straws can be utilized to prepare biochar (straw-derived biochar, SBC) to remove antibiotics from aquatic environment. To date, although a number of review papers have summarized and discussed research on biochar application in wastewater treatment and soil remediation, there are few reviews on SBC for antibiotic removal. Due to the limitations of poor adsorption and degradation performance of the pristine SBC, it is necessary to modify SBC to improve its applications for antibiotics removal. The maximum antibiotic removal capacity of modified SBC could reach 1346.55 mg/g. Moreover, the adsorption mechanisms between modified SBC and antibiotics mainly involve π-π interactions, electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interactions, and charge dipole interactions. In addition, the modified SBC could completely degrade antibiotics within 6 min by activating oxidants, such as PS, PDS, H₂O₂, and O₃. The mechanisms of antibiotic degradation by SBC activated oxidants mainly include free radicals (including SO₄•^-, •OH, and O₂•^-) and non-free radical pathway (such as, ¹O₂, electrons transfer, and surface-confined reaction). Although SBC and modified SBC have demonstrated excellent performance in removing antibiotics, they still face some challenges in practical applications, such as poor stability, high cost, and difficulties in recycling. Therefore, the further research directions and trends for the development of SBC and biochar-based materials should be taken into consideration.

Keywords: Adsorption; Advanced oxidation processes; Antibiotics; Straw-derived biochar; Wastewater.

Publication types

Review