The Thermal Pre-Processing Technique of the Bio-waste for Contaminated Water Treatment: Histological and Experimental Study

The current study suggested a thermal treatment as a necessary proactive step in improving the adsorption capacity of bio-waste for contaminants removal in wastewater. This approach was based on the experimental and histological investigation of biowaste pod shells. This investigation showed that these shells composed of parenchyma cells that store secondary metabolites compounds produced from cells were exhibited in the present study. The results also reported that these compounds are extracted directly from the cells as soon as they are exposed to an aqueous solution, hampering their use as an adsorbent material. The increase in the weight of bio-waste adsorbent at unit liquid volume increases the production of secondary metabolites compounds under normal conditions. While thermal conditions accelerate the exit of these compounds from their storage places. After suggested thermal processing, the bio-waste was examined for azo dye removal under different operational conditions (adsorbent weight (1, 0.1 g), contact time (24 and 48 h), and temperature (30, 40, 50, and 60  oC). In general, the experimental data showed a good improvement in adsorption potential. The results presented clearly that the increase in temperature has a positive effect on the performance of pollutant removal. The maximum adsorption capacity was 0.035833 mol/g at a temperature of 40°C, and 0.036417 mol/g at a temperature of 50°C. This behavior may be counterproductive with high temperatures as a result of the release of more secondary metabolite compounds. For other operating conditions, increasing the concentration of the pollutant also improves the efficiency of the process, while this efficiency decreases with the increasing weight of the adsorbent material. For example, the removal capacity was (0.000275, 0.00675 mol/g) with 1 and 0.1 g of the adsorbent weight, respectively. Finally, the present study concluded that the adoption of thermal pre-treatment technology for bio-mass waste is a necessary step in improving the adsorption processes. the adsorption processes.