The continuous growth of world population together with the strong urbanization has
triggered an increasing demand for freshwater which has resulted in a serious deterioration of
water bodies [1]. Water pollution with pharmaceutical drugs is becoming a relevant problem.
The concentration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, estrogens, personal care products,
among others, in waterways is reaching hazardous levels, posing a threat to the environment and
human health. Moreover, conventional cleaning and degradation processes applied on
wastewater treatment plants are inefficient to eliminate or remove these compounds.
Adsorption is a treatment process considered as effective process used to remove
micropollutants such as pharmaceutical drugs from wastewaters [2, 3].
This work will present the main experimental results obtained for the removal of naproxen, a
representative anti-inflammatory drug, from water by adsorption using activated carbon
obtained from olive stone. From the raw material, four different types of activated carbon
adsorbent were prepared and characterized. The equilibrium adsorption isotherms were
measured using the batch method. The most significant adsorption parameters were optimized,
such as the solution pH, mass of the adsorbent, contact time and temperature. Four types of
activated carbon materials were prepared from olive stones, the olive pits were powdered to an
average diameter of 0.25 mm (type 1), then chemically activated with a strong acid (type 2) and
then carbonized at 500ᵒC (type 3) or pyrolyzed at 800ᵒC (type 4). The batch method was applied
to experimentally measure the equilibrium adsorption isotherms. The most significant
adsorption parameters were optimized, such as the solution pH, mass of the adsorbent used,
adsorption contact time and adsorption temperature.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support
through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020, UIDP/00690/2020 and
EXPL2021CIMO_05-REMPHARM) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
