Removal of Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride from Aqueous Solution by Pomegranate Peel Grown in Alziedab Agricultural Scheme - River Nile State, Sudan

Removal of Ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibiotic from aqueous solution onto Activated carbon derived from pomegranate peel wastes collected from Alziedab Agricultural Scheme at River Nile state, Sudan as a novel precursorby chemical activation with Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), at specific condition of carbonization temperature at 500°C and 1 hour as a holding time and detonated as (AC(PPZS)KOH. The obtained material was submitted to measurements of active surface area, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Batch-adsorption studied had been carried out to examine the adsorption capacity of the AC(PPZS)KOH for the removal of Ciprofloxacin from aqueous solution. The effect of various process parameters like pH, initial antibiotic concentration, adsorbent dose, and contact time, on the efficiency of Ciprofloxacin removal was investigated. Maximum adsorption of Ciprofloxacin on AC(PPZS)KOH, (86.4 ± 5.7%) was observed at pH 8. The optimum adsorbent dose was determined as 0.05 g at 25°C. Initial Ciprofloxacin concentrations has important effect on AC(PPZS)KOH in the studied range (50–300 mg/L) where the removal percentage increases as the antibiotic concentration decrease. The adsorption equilibrium data was well explained by Freundlich isotherm. The results reveal the Langmuir model is not able to describe the experimental data properly, poor less of fitting on AC(PPZS)KOH. The Freundlich isotherm experimental data obtained showed (Correlation Coefficient, R 2 = 0.991) higher than Langmuir isotherm, R 2 = 0.919). The porous characteristics and adsorption efficiencies of prepared AC(PPZS)KOH were also investigated.