A sustainable approach for fluoride treatment using coconut fiber cellulose as an adsorbent

Hussain A 1 , Maitra J 2 , Saifi A 3 , Ahmed S 4 , Ahmed J 5 , Shrestha NK 6 Show all authors , Qureshi F 7 , Kamyab H 8 , Chelliapan S 9 , Yusuf M 10

Affiliations 

  • 1 Civil Engineering Department, Netaji Subhas University of Technology West Campus, Jaffarpur, New Delhi, 110073, India
  • 2 Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, UP, India
  • 3 Civil Engineering Department, Environmental Engineering Section, School of Engineering, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, UP, 201312, India
  • 4 Interdisciplinary Department of Remote Sensing and GIS Applications, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India. Electronic address: [email protected]
  • 5 Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
  • 6 Division of Physics and Semiconductor Science, Dongguk University, Seoul, 04620, South Korea
  • 7 Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department, UAE University, P.O. Box 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
  • 8 Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, UTE University, Calle Rumipamba S/N and Bourgeois, Quito, Ecuador; Department of Biomaterials, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, 600 077, India; Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
  • 9 Engineering Department, Razak Faculty of Technology & Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 10 Clean Energy Technologies Research Institute (CETRI), Process Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, SK, 3737 Wascana Parkway, S4S 0A2, Canada; Centre of Research Impact and Outcome, Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Punjab, India. Electronic address: [email protected]
Environ Res, 2024 Mar 01;244:117952.
PMID: 38113992 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117952

Abstract

In developing countries like India, an economically viable and ecologically approachable strategy is required to safeguard the drinking water. Excessive fluoride intake through drinking water can lead to dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis, or both. The present study has been under with an objective to investigate the feasibility of using cellulose derived from coconut fiber as an adsorbent under varying pH conditions for fluoride elimination from water. The assessment of equilibrium concentration of metal ions using adsorption isotherms is an integral part of the study. This present finding indicates the considerable effect of variation of adsorbent dosages on the fluoride removal efficiency under constant temperature conditions of 25 ± 2 °C with a contact period of 24 h. It is pertinent to mention that maximum adsorption of 88% has been observed with a pH value of 6 with 6 h time duration with fluoride dosage of 50 mg/L. The equilibrium concentration dwindled to 0.4 mg/L at fluoride concentration of 20 mg/L. The Langmuir model designates the adsorption capacity value of 2.15 mg/L with initial fluoride concentration of 0.21 mg/g with R2 value of 0.660. Similarly, the adsorption capacity using Freundlich isotherms is found to be 0.58 L/g and 0.59 L/g with fluoride concentration of 1.84 mg/L and 2.15 mg/L respectively. The results from the present study confirm that coconut fiber possesses appropriate sorption capabilities of fluoride ion but is a pH dependent phenomenon. The outcomes of the study indicate the possible use of cellulose extracted from waste coconut fiber as a low-cost fluoride adsorbent. The present study can be well implemented on real scale systems as it will be beneficial economically as well as environmentally.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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