Highly efficient magnetic chicken bone biochar for removal of tetracycline and fluorescent dye from wastewater: Two-stage adsorber analysis

Abstract Magnetic chicken bone biochar (MCB) was fabricated and characterised. The specific surface area, magnetisation value and pH pzc of the MCB were found to be 328 m 2  g −1 , 64.7 emu/g and 8.3 respectively. The adsorptive performance of MCB for rhodamine B dye (RB) and tetracycline (TC) removal in a single and two-stage stirred adsorber (TSA) was evaluated. The TSA reduced the pressure drops, mass transfer resistances, and fouling of the adsorbent. 63.0 g MCB is required to remove 75% of RB and TC in a single-stage system within 12 h. However, the optimised TSA confirmed that 33.2 g of MCB is needed to achieve 96% removal of TC and 22.2 g for RB within 180 min of 100 mgL −1 effluent solutions. The sorption was suitably described by the Freundlich mechanism. Based on the comparative performance, the MCB is considered a viable efficient and magnetically separable alternative adsorbent.