Preparation and Modification of Biochar Derived from Agricultural Waste for Metal Adsorption from Urban Wastewater

This work evaluates the efficiency of three biochar samples toward the adsorption of manganese, iron, and selenium present in a sample of urban wastewater. The biochar was produced from the pyrolysis of rice husks at 350 °C for 6 h (RHB) and subsequently modified using HCl (RHBHCl) or NaOH (RHBNaOH) to increase its surface area. The RHBNaOH sample exhibited the highest removal efficiency for the three metals. The metals’ adsorption removal efficiency for RHBNaOH was in the order Mn (76%), Se (66%), and Fe (66%), while for RHBHCl, it was Fe (59%), Mn (30%), and Se (26%). The results show that the as-prepared RHB can remove the metals, even if in low amounts (Fe (48%), Mn (3%), and Se (39%)). The adsorption removal for the three types of adsorbents follows the Langmuir isotherm model. Pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models were used to determine the adsorption mechanism for each of the three adsorbents. Both models showed a good fit with R2 (>0.9) for the RHBNaOH and RHB sorption of Fe, Mn, and Se. Overall, this work demonstrates the potential of biochar for the removal of metals from real wastewater.