Investigation of ibuprofen removal from aqueous medium by activated carbon prepared from orange shell

In this thesis, the removal of ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, from the aqueous medium with activated carbon prepared from orange peel was investigated. For this, in the first step of the study, the activated carbon was prepared from orange peel and characterized by some analysis. In the second step of the study, in order to determine the adsorption efficiency of the prepared activated carbon, the removal of ibuprofen from the aqueous medium using this activated carbon was studied with batch adsorption experiments. The effects of various parameters such as initial pH of the solution, activated carbon dose, initial ibuprofen concentration and temperature on the ibuprofen removal efficiency were investigated. The results of the study showed that ibuprofen removal was higher in acidic conditions. However, an effective removal was also achieved at other pHs studied. While the removal efficiency increased with the increase of the activated carbon dose, it decreased with the increase of the initial ibuprofen concentration. The increase in temperature provided a slight increase in the removal efficiency. Experimental data obtained at different temperatures were applied to the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The results showed that ibuprofen adsorption better fitted the Langmuir isotherm model. According to the Langmuir isotherm model, the maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) of activated carbon at 25, 40 and 55 oC temperatures was determined as 243.90, 250.00 and 270.27 mg/g, respectively. Experimental data were applied to the first and second order kinetic models and the results showed that the ibuprofen adsorption by the activated carbon followed the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The results of this study revealed that the activated carbon from orange peel is a highly efficient and recyclable adsorbent for ibuprofen removal from aquatic environments. In conclusion, this activated carbon can be recommended as a promising adsorbent for ibuprofen removal from aquatic environments.