REMOVAL OF COD FROM PHARMACEUTICAL WASTEWATER USING SUGARCANE BAGASSE AND BETONITE CLAY

Water pollution is a major concern because of its negative effect on humans, plants and aquatic creatures. The concentration of COD in the wastewater is an indication of its impurity. Various pollutants impart COD to the water; hence, its removal is synergistically adequate for the removal of these impurities (organic and inorganic). The cost of adsorbents and the problems associated with their regeneration had led to the search for alternate low-cost adsorbents. This study involved the treatment of wastewater obtained from a pharmaceutical industry in Ilorin, Nigeria using sugar-cane bagasse and clay as adsorbents for the reduction of COD to a permissible level set by the World Health Organization for reuse as irrigation water for agricultural activities. For the treatment process, 27 experimental runs were designed, executed and analyzed to identify the best operating condition that brings about the lowest residual COD concentration. An optimum COD removal response of 97.8 % was obtained at adsorption conditions of adsorbent loading 0.75 g/mL, temperature 45 ℃ and retention time of 120 min. The developed composite adsorbent reduced the COD content to a permissible level

REMOVAL OF PHENOL FROM PHARMACEUTICAL EFFLUENTS USING LOCUST BEAN POD AND BENTONITE CLAY

The pharmaceutical industry uses large volumes of fresh water in the process of producing pharmaceutical products and this leads to the generation of large volumes of wastewater. This wastewater is usually profiled for contaminants such as hydrocarbons, dissolved solids and aromatic alcohols such as phenolic compounds which are hazardous to humans. Previous investigations have revealed that the wastewater could be treated by either conventional treatment technologies or biomass treatment systems. However, most of these conventional treatment technologies have higher energy consumption and capital requirement compared to the use of biomass treatment systems. Hence, the current study has employed the use of adsorbents derived from the hybridization of locust bean pod represented as category A, and clay represented as category B for the reduction of phenol from pharmaceutical industry wastewater. The best adsorbent (A3:B3) combination in ratio 1:1, reduced the phenol content to a permissible concentration level of 0.2662 mg/L. This was subjected to an optimization process using Box-Behnken of RSM and lower phenolic concentration of 0.211 mg/L was attained at operating conditions of 45 ºC of temperature, 70 min of contact time, and adsorbent loading of 0.1 g. This study has established that the combination of locust bean pod and clay adsorbent is promising for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment

BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM PALM KERNEL OIL USING BENTONITE CLAY-SUPPORTED FE-CO NANOCATALYST

This study is focused on the development of a heterogeneous Fe-Co bimetallic nanoparticle on Pindiga bentonite clay support to be used in the production of biodiesel. The local clay was beneficiated and used in the preparation of catalyst by wet impregnation method. The X-ray Fluorescence analysis (XRF) of the bentonite clay showed the presence of several metals and metallic oxides with good catalytic effect. Characterization of the prepared catalyst using Fourier Transform Infared Ray (FTIR), Energy Dispersive Spectrometer, (EDS) X-Ray Dispersion (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirmed the functional groups, elemental compositions, crystallinity, and morphology of the catalyst respectively. The catalyst was evaluated in biodiesel production using Box-Behnken optimization by varying the methanol: oil mole ratio, reaction temperature, reaction time, and catalyst concentration. An optimum yield of biodiesel (93.8 %) was obtained at process condition of 15:1 methanol: oil mole ratio, 55 °C reaction temperature, 1 h, reaction time, and 15 % (w/w) catalyst concentration. Physicochemical properties of the biodiesel produced using the developed Fe-Co/ bentonite nanocatalyst showed that the biodiesel is of good quality. This was further confirmed by the FAMEs profile. Therefore, the Fe-Co/bentonite nanocatalyst showed potential application as heterogeneous nanocatalyst for the trans-esterification of vegetable oil to biodiesel, an alternative and sustainable replacement for conventional petroleum diesel

OPTIMIZED PRODUCTION OF BIOETHANOL BY FERMENTATION OF ACID HYDROLYZED-CORN STOVER EMPLOYING SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE YEAST STRAIN

In this study, corn stover was converted into ethanol using a locally-fabricated bioreactor and process conditions were optimized. The corn stover biomass used as substrate was milled, screened to 200 μm and hydrolyzed with between 0.1-0.5 M HCl. The hydrolysis experiment was carried out for substrate concentrations of 20, 25, and 30% (w/v) of milled bagasse prepared in a 1000 mL glass jar containing distilled water. For each substrate concentration, the time, temperature, and acid concentration were varied between 10 – 60 min., 80 – 97 °C, and 0.1 – 0.5 M, respectively to find the optimum glucose yield. Glucose concentration in the optimum hydrolysate sample was determined using glucose oxidase method. Fermentation experiment was conducted in the bioreactor using 700 ml of the hydrolysate and Saccharomyces cerevisiae supplemented with minerals to yield ethanol of 21.47 g/L after 48 hours. A linear regression model developed after analysis of variance was able to predict the concentration of glucose produced during the acid hydrolysis, and the optimum ethanol yield of 21.47 g/L compares well with previous reported yield values found in literature